The Red Planet

"No." Rose breathed the word. "Not again. Why does this keep happening?"

Two or three houses away there was a backyard barbecue. Over the sound of loud talking and shouts of enjoyment came the unmistakable sound. Folk music.

Rose dove back inside and waited just long enough for me to slip in as well before slamming the door shut. She pressed her back to it and slid down to the floor. It almost looked like she wanted to cry.

"Unbelievable. It seems like every time I ask you to show me the stars the universe has other plans. Maybe all this is just because I'm horny and haven't gotten laid in a couple of months. Maybe we're not supposed to be more than roommates."

A two word response sprang immediately to my mind. Fuck. That. What crossed over my lips was far less crude.

"Not this time," I said, surprised at how confident I sounded. "I got this. Give me ten minutes and then pop into my room?"

Rose looked suspicious, but nodded and went to clean up the kitchen.

In my room I dug out a black orb, plugged it in and spent five minutes calibrating it for the date and time, then made a few more adjustments. With that done, I set it on a small table in the middle, made my bed and lay two pillows next to each other at the foot of it.

I'd just turned off the light when Rose knocked.

"Excellent timing," I said, opening the door. I took her hand, shut the door and began guiding her towards my bed. "Just mind your step, and when you reach the bed lay down."

I felt Rose stiffen behind me.

"Mars, I'm not sure this is a good idea, I want to - but I'm not quite there yet," she began.

"No! It's nothing like that," I cut in. "It's just ... trust me. I'm not going to do anything weird. I won't even be on the bed."

"I've heard that before," she quipped, but resumed shuffling into my room.

Once she was settled I positioned myself against the wall near the head of the bed. It was perfectly dark. A void formed around us, broken only by the sound of our breaths and the occasional creak from my bed as Rose moved.

I fumbled the remote from my pocket and turned on the sphere in the middle of the room. Stars swirled into place around us. White pin pricks scattered across my bedroom walls, and ceiling. Rose gasped in surprise, then cheered.

"Mars, you made the stars come out," she said. I'd never seen her excited like this. She looked like she was a little kid. "How did you do this? It's wonderful!"

"It's a home planetarium. I use it as a study aid sometimes, when it's cloudy out or I want to check something during the day. It's programmable, and it's pretty accurate too. This is about where all the stars and constellations would be right now. Except I moved one thing."

With my free hand I pointed my finger at a single bright star on my stomach, and began tracing a line between it and other stars. I repeated the motions twice to make sure she was looking at the right set of stars.

"This, is Scorpius," I said. "It's normally in a higher part of the sky, but it's easier to learn how constellations look when you know where to look."

There was a creak from the bed as Rose stood up. A moment later she crashed into me, wrapping her arms around me and hugging me.

"Mars, this is incredible. I love it!" She exclaimed. When she pulled back she noticed the stars on me had disappeared. "What happened to the stars? Where did Scorpius go?"

"Well, the projector can't shine through things, so right now your back is covered with stars and given you're a bit closer to it, Scorpius is probably," I paused. "Well, it's probably on your butt."

Rose laughed and squeezed me even tighter. Then she turned around and began to marvel at the stars dotting her body.

"Oh my god," she yelled a moment later. "You were right. Scorpius is lower down on me here. It's on my crotch! That big reddish star in the middle of it is right on my ..."

Her mouth clamped shut with an audible snap.

"Uh, that would be Antares," I offered. "It also goes by Alpha Scorpii. It's a red supergiant - so it's about 10,000 times brighter than our sun. It's just a lot further away. So far away that if you were looking at it in the sky for real, the light waves you were seeing would have started their journey before Christopher Columbus arrived in America."

Rose's hand grabbed mine and tugged me to the bed. We settled in, but she never let go of my hand.

"Alright Mars, you convinced me. Show me the heavens."

I don't know how long we spent laying on the bed together. The stars would have been on the cusp of disappearing into the dawn outside by the time Rose rolled onto her shoulder and lifted her head up to look me in the eyes.

"You Mars, have utterly charmed me tonight," she said.

Her face was dotted with stars. Bright pricks of light glowed on her cheeks, her forehead and chin. They winked in and out as her hair moved, twinkled in her eyes and sparkled on her lips. I was star struck.

Rose seemed to guess what I was looking at and sat upright. Constellations appeared on her shoulders and the t-shirt covering her breasts.

"How do I look? Am I the best looking galaxy you've ever had in your room?"

It took me a while to answer. At first I was taking in the curve of her bosom dressed in starlight. But it was when I forced my eyes back to hers that the breath caught in my throat, trapping my reply behind it. I would have missed it entirely if she hadn't blinked just as I looked up. HR 5056, right there on her eyelid. When she opened her eyes again it gleamed, surrounded by the ring of her iris. I was transfixed.

"Spica," I finally said.

"What?" She asked, confused but enjoying the attention.

"You have a star in your eye."

"Oh. Ouch." She giggled. "Would I know it?"

"Maybe not Spica, but you'd know the constellation. Virgo."

I couldn't stop staring.

"Ha! The virgin? I've never had one of those in my eye before. Although I did leave one or two seeing stars back in high school."

Rose giggled again, then shoved me in the shoulder. I couldn't drag my eyes away.

"OK, Mars, another three seconds and the staring is going to go from cute to creepy."

Her head moved and the star streaked across her cheek like a comet at sunset. I snapped back to my senses.

"Sorry, it's my favourite star ... stars, they're twins," I said.

"Oh, and here's me thinking you'd just got lost in my eyes."

Rose began to move her arms through the air, catching galaxies on her skin and the fabric of her t-shirt. She shimmied and the constellation Corvus danced from breast to breast. When she stopped Gamma Corvi seemed to bulge forward from about where I guessed her nipple would be.

"Heavenly," I murmured.

"What?"

"Earlier, you asked how you looked. You look heavenly."

Rose groaned.

"Mars, that's the punniest pickup line that's ever been tried on me."

This time it was Rose who stared into my eyes. She could have done it forever and I never would have seen a creepy side to it. I began to lose track of the stars moving around her face. I was suddenly more interested in the way she chewed her lip.

"Mars, did you do this to be romantic?"

I shrugged.

"I don't think I really know what romantic is. I just assumed this would be nerdy. I mostly did it because I'm an astrophysicist who really hates getting beaten by clouds. And folk music."

"Well, for future reference, romantic is when you do something for a woman that's sweet and smart and makes her feel like the whole universe is revolving around her. It's when you leave her feeling as giddy as when she was 14 and watching the Princess Bride for the first time. It's when you invite a woman into your room promising you're not pulling some move on her, and you do something that makes her want to make a move on you.

"Romantic is when you've done all that, and she's been hoping you'll just lean over and kiss her, but you don't. You make her wait. And wait. Until she can't take it anymore. And she kisses you."

Rose breathed the last few words as she leaned in. Her lips grazed over mine. They were so warm. She pressed down until she eventually caught my lower one between hers and pulled back on it gently. She let me go and her face hovered in front of mine.

"OK, I'm assuming you don't have a lot of experience with girls, but you know you have to kiss me back, right?"

I lunged forward, pushing her back as my mouth pressed into hers. This was the third kiss of my life. I barely had any idea what I was doing, but I was determined to make up for that with enthusiasm. That seemed to be enough. Before I knew it I'd pushed Rose back until she was laying on her back with me pressing down on top of her. She ran her fingers through my hair, tickling at my scalp as she pulled me into her. When we came up for air she sounded breathless. Then I remembered my weight.

"Shit. Sorry. I'm crushing you."

"In a good way. Get back here."

Her fingers tightened in my hair and forced my lips against hers again. This time her tongue forced its way between them. I tried to copy it, pressing mine against hers. Rose moaned, her legs spreading and her feet digging into my hips.

"Maybe I'm just a bit keyed up after today, but if you keep that up I might end up asking if I can move into your room," she said.

I kept it up. It wasn't until Rose rolled me over onto my side that I noticed how far the stars had moved across the ceiling. We'd been kissing for half an hour.

"Mars?" Rose breathed against me.

"Yes?" I breathed back.

"I think we need knew ground rules for the apartment."

I laughed. But she fixed me with a solemn look and began sketching at the air as if she were writing down the apartment's list of commandments.

"Rule one. It's OK to grab my breasts and my butt when you think I'm looking sexy."

Rose pushed me over onto my back and straddled me, lifting one of my hands to a breast and pressing the other against the soft flesh of her backside. She leant forward again, nuzzling my neck. I cupped and squeezed at her breast, a hard flexible nub pressing back against my palm. It took me longer than it should have to realise it was her nipple. The first nipple I'd ever touched, even if it was through clothes. Rose gasped as I pressed against it, moaned when I pinched it.

"Rule two. I can grab your arse and your cock when I think I'm looking sexy."

She punctuated this by raising her hips and rubbing her palm along the length of my shaft.

"Rule three, clothes are optional," Rose continued.

"These hardly seem like rules," I laughed.

"Rule four. No questioning the rules."

She lifted her legs off me and grunted as she hauled her pants off. At first I thought she was wearing a skimpy pair of panties, then I realised it was her pubic hair. Each follicle was as fine as cotton, but they shaded her skin darker until they reached the junction where her legs pressed together. Her fingers began working at the hem of my pants.

"Rule five. Tomorrow you need to buy condoms."

"Wait, why do I have to be the one who buys ..." My words gave way to a moan as Rose yanked my pants down and immediately grabbed my bare penis. I could just make out a sly smile on her face as she looked down at me.

"Oh, I think you'll be satisfied with the arrangement, Mars."

Rose grabbed the hand I had kneading her bare buttock and slid it further along until I felt it start to disappear into the cleft of her arse. Her fingers tightened around my penis and I almost exploded. I could feel an orgasm building. Jen was about to move into second place.

"I take it that means you're OK with this?" Rose asked.

My pulse pounded with anticipation. Words deserted me. I nodded.

"You won't regret it. I'm going to make you feel things you've never felt before. And looking at the size of you, you might wind up in unchartered waters inside me too. Speaking of which, if I'm going to take this thing all the way in I want to see it properly. Does that star lamp of yours get any brighter?"

The question was enough distraction to stop me losing it in her hand. Or maybe it was her grip softening. I found the remote on my bedside table and zoomed out. Stars squeezed tighter together, galaxies brightened and nebulae filled the room with colour. Splashes of blue and red, pink and green appeared. Rose rocked back into a sitting position and I felt warm wetness pressing into my thigh. She held my penis against her abdomen. It left a clear streak of pre-cum against the lowest fold of her stomach, and a little on the base of her t-shirt. A wicked glint in her eyes made them seem greener. No woman had never smiled at me the way Rose did as she dragged a finger through my pre-cum and brought it to her lips, sucking it slowly. She repeated the motion to collect more, only this time instead of moving to her mouth next her finger dipped to her crotch wiggled between us. A moment later she gasped.

I watched mesmerised as Rose's breasts jostled beneath her t-shirt as her arm thrust rapidly between us. She masturbated furiously for maybe a minute until her body clenched. Her hand moved away and she sank back against me. Wetness drooled down my thigh now.

"Just giving myself a head start," she breathed. "Now you know I've had an orgasm, you don't have to get stressed out wondering."

"That was the hottest thing I've ever seen," I whispered.

"Well, somebody knows the right time to give a woman a compliment," Rose said. Her words hung in the air for a moment as she chewed her lip, eyes focused at where my cock was pressed against her stomach. "Have you ever gone bareback?"

"Bareback?"

"You can't be THAT innocent, Mars. Au natural, raw, plastic-free."

I was too shocked to answer. But Rose just rolled her eyes and plunged a hand into the top of her t-shirt. It emerged a moment later with a condom between her fingers. I could only guess she'd stuffed it in her bra thinking she might come into my room to have sex with me. That realisation was enough to make another dribble of pre-cum spill from the tip of my penis.

"OK, here's the deal," she said. "You get 30 seconds inside me without this. Then I'll get off, hopefully in more ways than one. If I've already cum by that stage, and trust me I'm on a hair trigger so that's almost a certainty, you can blow your load wherever you want. In my mouth, between my breasts, or you can put the condom on and I'll ride you until you pop. Sound good?"

My penis throbbed in her hand.

"I'll take that as a yes," she said laughing.

Rose eyed my cock for a moment before she began to raise her hips from my leg.

"One other thing, I'm kinda shallow. A lot more shallow than most girls are down there. When I said you're going to wind up in uncharted waters I mean you're probably going to bottom out at first. I should stretch a bit to take you, but it'll take a couple of seconds. So don't get carried away and bruise my cervix before I get a chance to adjust, OK?"

I nodded and watched fascinated as one of her hands spread her thighs and the other guided my penis to fill the gap she'd revealed. The feel of her fingers against the bare skin of my cock was intense, but the anticipation of what I was about to feel made my whole body tingle. This was it. I was about to lose my virginity. I moaned as my tip slipped between her wet folds. Rose didn't tease me. In another second, my whole crown was inside her. It was beyond anything I had ever imagined. By the time she'd sunk halfway down my cock the sensation was overwhelming. I was losing myself inside her.

I started to tell her how wonderful she was making me feel, but she shushed me.

Rose finished sliding down until there was about a thumbnail of me still exposed. Somewhere very deep inside her the tip of my penis was being squeezed tighter than ever before. Every nerve in my exposed glans was being stimulated. But Rose wasn't done yet. She held a roll of her stomach away and frowned down at where the pale skin of my dick gave way to the darker shading of her pubic hair. She pressed down, wiggled herself onto me. A gasp and a drawn out 'fuuuck' that could have been her pushing through pain, pleasure or both, accompanied the movement. We were close enough now for her soft pubic hairs to tickle my skin. Rose wriggled a finger between us and nudged the tip of it into the base of my cock. But she frowned and shook her head, still not satisfied. I was right on the edge of orgasm.

Condom. The word popped into my head as I felt my cock twitch a small pearl of what I hoped was just pre-cum inside Rose. I'd just thought to warn her when she slipped both hands under my hips for leverage and forced herself down onto me. The only thing in her mind appeared to be a reckless determination to take every sliver of me inside her. The pressure and tightness gripping my penis was incredible. A wiggle of her hips and we were both left staring at the folds of skin where our bodies were now firmly pressed together.

Rose smiled in triumph and gave a little flex of the muscles inside her vagina to celebrate. And that was all I could take. With a beautiful smile, her hand holding back her stomach so I could see where I disappeared inside her, Rose made me cum. Less than a month after she'd moved in I unloaded three days of unresolved sexual desire inside my roommate.

I only had the presence of mind to groan in pleasure after the second spurt erupted into her vagina. By that stage realisation was washing over her. Rose's eyes were glued to her stomach, as though she could see through herself to where my spasming cock was spurting inside her. Fear swept in behind the look of realisation and she lost her grip on her muffin top. The roll of flesh flopped down against her pubic mound. Something in that motion moved me inside her. It stroked the intensity of my fifth eruption. But it must have done something much more for Rose, because with that tiny movement she came.

It was far more intense than when she had masturbated a few minutes ago. Her eyes rolled back in her head, her right leg twitched uncontrollably against my hip. A moan poured out of her lips. A sixth and seventh spray of my cum shot into Rose. They only seemed to intensify her pleasure.

I lost track of how many more times cum pulsed out of me and into her vagina. By the time I'd recovered enough to take in the scene properly there was creamy fluid squeezing its way between our stomachs. Rose was still twitching, her breath coming in short gasps. Her eyes were locked on mine, our gazes connecting us almost as closely as where our two bodies were joined at the hip. For a minute or so there was just the sound of our breathing.

"You came in me," she finally whispered.

Not a question or an accusation. Just a simple matter of fact. I didn't know what to say.

"I'm not on the pill. You're not wearing a condom."

More facts. They sent a thrill through me, nerves, fear and a bolt of sexual desire unlike anything I'd ever felt before.

"My roommate just came inside me. Two seconds after he got his dick in me he pumped so much cum inside me I can actually feel it in there."

I felt my ego deflate, even though my cock was as hard as it had ever been inside her. A satisfied, wistful smile settled on Rose's lips.

"I think I just got knocked up. But you just gave me the best fucking orgasm of my life."

Rose lifted her muffin top again, held the roll back and stared at the white line of fluid between our two bodies, a glistening smear where escaping semen had already squeezed its way to freedom between our two bodies. Slowly the index finger of her spare hand reached towards a protruding nub of flesh at the top of her vagina. Her whole body bucked when she touched it. Eyes wide, Rose flicked it again. And again. Her ring finger joined in and she mashed the two digits against the nub, rubbing violently at it until her body jerked and she squealed.