I wasn’t one to brag. Well, maybe I was. I’d landed in bedrooms faster, for sure. But getting Lena to trust me enough to pull me into her bedroom felt like winning a long-fought battle. Even if that battle was only a couple of weeks long.

Holding her felt amazing. She was slim but not skinny. Soft but not squishy. She smelled good— light, not a flowery, thick rose scent. Standing flat on her feet, she could rest her chin on my shoulder. On her tiptoes, our mouths were perfectly aligned for our lips to mesh together, then linger for just a heartbeat longer than usual.

When she pulled back, I opened my eyes and found hers studying my face. “Everything okay?” I asked. “Do you want me to—”

“No. Don’t move,” she said.

But she was moving. She stepped into me, closer and closer still. Then I realized what was going on. My hands slid from the small of her back to the rounded cheeks of her ass and pulled her toward me, up and against me. My dick pressed against the stiff denim of my jeans, enough that she could feel me through the thin fabric of her leggings; enough to bring that unique sensation of pleasure and pain, when you want it to stop but don’t really want it to stop. 

“Is that what you were looking for?” 

I nibbled on a spot below her ear, then moved to the sensitive junction of her neck and shoulder. I’d never been able to kiss or lick or nibble there without getting a flinch or a giggle. Lena was no different— she squealed, her arms drawing tighter around me, her head tipping so I had more access to do it again. 

I groaned as I dipped my head to taste her skin. She even tasted good, and women don’t normally taste good. Lotion tastes like chemically treated shit, even that Victoria’s Secret stuff. Lena tasted like sugar and I couldn’t get enough of her.

“Why do you taste good? Did you rub some smoked bacon on your neck when you were in the bathroom?”

She giggled, the sound muffled since her face was buried in my neck. She tipped her head up to drop a kiss along my chin. “You’re tasting my homemade sugar scrub. I used it this morning in case…” Her gaze dipped toward my lips and back up.

“In case I wanted to chew on you for an hour?”

Her lips bent into a shy smile. She shrugged a shoulder, then blushed. And then I caught up with what I actually let fall out of my mouth. “Shit. Lena, I didn’t—”

“It’s… okay,” she said, laughing. She stepped back a little, which hurt my feelings until I realized she was moving us across the room. The requisite ridiculous amount of pillows and a slate grey and black comforter covered the bed. On either side were matching nightstands, each bearing a lamp and a few photos— some of her and Barksdale when he was a puppy, some family and friends that I recognized from other pictures.

She climbed up onto the bed and sat in the middle, patting a spot beside her. Once I’d settled in next to her she pointed at a drawing that hung on the wall. It was another pencil drawing, this time in color. “That’s one of my pieces. And that one,” she said, pointing at another.

“You have a natural talent. You should put them in a show or something.”

“Nah.”  She shook her head. “They’re just for me. Sometimes I get in a mood. This is how I emote. You have your music. I have my pencils.”

“But I sell my music. I put my music out there. I let people enjoy it. As celebrity as that sounds, it’s how I make a living.”

“I make my living in other ways. Art is my therapy.” She drew her legs up against her chest and locked her arms around them. It felt like a classic shutting down, shutting out gesture.

“I’m sorry. I sound pushy and I’m not trying to be.”

“What are you trying to be?” She asked softly.

“I’m trying to be encouraging, I guess. Positive. To tell you the truth, I’m really just trying to navigate things with you without getting pushed off the boat.”

She smiled, then shifted her legs, sitting criss-cross. “Better?” After I nodded, she said, “Thank you for trying to encourage me. I see the sweet. Through the pushy.”

“You’ll learn that that’s basically me. I’m not bossy; I just like order. And I’m not argumentative, I’m just right a lot.”

“Okay...well, you’ll learn that I’m not going to take your word for it, just because you say so. And that I have my own thing going, so back off.”

“Is that so?”

“That’s so.” She chuckled. “I uhm… can’t think of a good segue to bring this up but… remember when you said I tasted good and I said I’d used the sugar scrub this morning, in case…”

Of course I remembered that. I remembered the hell out of that, because in a millisecond I imagined my face between her legs and her fingers in my hair. “Uh…. that sparks a memory. Yeah.”

“Yeah. So. How can we transition to the in case part of the evening? Because I…”

“Because you…”  I stared at her, trying to keep my expression intense. Mostly because it made her nervous and flustered, but also because it brought me closer to what I’d been wanting all day. 

“I...I mean…”

My eyes narrowed and I grinned. “You want sex with a celebrity, don’t you?”

“No.” Her smile fell and I went back into the doghouse. Or so I thought. “I want sex with you. The man that picked me up wearing that Dodger’s cap that has to be ten years old. That spread a sheet out in the back of his Mercedes fucking AMG so my big stupid hairy dog could lay down back there. The guy that played catch with my dog until he passed out, then bought him treats. The man who raced me to see who could eat a Dodger Dog the fastest.  I almost threw up, by the way.”

“So? You won.”

“By a hair. You inhale food. Anyway,” she continued, shifting again so that we were face to face. She leaned in and kissed me, then kissed me again. “I’m not looking for a celebrity experience. You know that about me. Just… plain old, every day, regular people fucking.”

“Did you just say regular people fucking?”

“Yes, I did. Can we do some?”

I leaned over and kissed her, gently pressing myself into her until she leaned back. She wrapped her arms around my neck, bringing me with her until we were both laying on the bed. Her legs seemed to move instinctively, wrapping around mine, bringing the warmth of her core up against me.

“You should take your jeans off,” she whispered between kisses that had started sweet but moved to feverish and whimpering. I sat up for as long as it took to grip my shirt at the back of my neck and tug it off, then to unbutton my jeans and shimmy them down my thighs. I lifted one leg and then the other, kicking my way out of them like they were on fire.

While I’d been hurriedly undressing, Lena calmly pulled her t-shirt over her head and rolled her leggings down, kicking them off of the edge of the bed. She waited for me, looking sexy as fuck in a tiny black bra and even tinier black thong.

We were united again in seconds, skin to skin, mouth to mouth. Lena kissed me like… well, shit. She probably hadn’t kissed anybody in a long time.

“So… tell me if I do something you don’t like,” I said, between kisses I dropped down the center of her chest, into her cleavage.

“You keep stopping to talk, and I don’t like that,” she said.

Then she gripped my head and shoved my face between two generous mounds. I took my cue and shut my mouth— actually opened it, then closed it over the nipple straining against its lace enclosure. My tongue rasped over and over and over the bud, each stroke resulting in a breathy moan and roll of her hips. I moved to the other nipple and gave it the same treatment, until I was ready to move further down her body.

I swiped my tongue between her navel and the band of her thong while I rubbed the backs of my fingers against the mound between her thighs. She opened her legs, making room for me and my shoulders to comfortably settle between them.

The heat coming off of her was intense. The scent of a woman… there’s something about it. It awoke a need inside me. It made me impatient, made me want to rip her panties off and satisfy some very strong, very base urges.

I mustered up some patience and self-control, settling for a couple of nibbles on her clit through her thong. Her hips bucked toward me and she let out a low moan, her hands reaching for her breasts, freeing her nipples from the bra and twisting them while she watched me.

“Keep going,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

I gripped the edge of her thong and pulled it aside. A well-manicured landing strip led to a glistening wet pussy. She looked good enough to eat--metaphorically. And for real. I must have gazed, mesmerized at her for a while, because I felt a hand on top of my head.

“Do you need instructions?”

“Uh… no.” I grinned, knowing it was cocky and self-assured.

“Then let’s get to it, shall we?”

She pushed my head down and I… honestly I let myself have it. I licked, I sucked, I teased, I nibbled, I licked some more, depending on how loudly she was grunting, how many times she muttered “fuck” through clenched teeth, and how tight of a grip she had on my hair.

When I slid a finger into her with her clit in my mouth, she sucked in a deep, sharp breath. Her entire body seized for what felt like forever but was probably no more than a few seconds. When she unclenched, her hips were rolling, she was moaning, “fuuuuuuuuuuuccckkkk” and her body quivered like Jell-O.

I liked making that happen.

Lena reached out for me, her hands gripping my shoulders and pulling me up. Once we were face to face again, she kissed me. Down below, she was moving, pulling off her thong, then hooking her thumbs in the band of my boxers and yanking them down.

“Fuck me,” she demanded, her voice husky with desire. Or, at least I guessed that’s what made her sound so lusty. It was a turn on, whatever it was.

“Uhm… I didn’t really think…I didn’t bring… do you happen to have—”

She laughed, pointing to the nightstand on the right side of the bed. “Bottom drawer. They’re brand new.”

I crawled up the bed, leaning down to pull the drawer open. I grabbed a strip and tore one off, then ripped the square package open. “It would have been okay if you had an open pack. I trust that you’re not trying to have my kid by sticking holes in condoms.”

“They’re not new because I thought you wouldn’t trust me. They’re new because I had no intention of having sex until yesterday.”

“You say the sexiest things.”

“You’re doing so much talking and not enough regular people fucking.”

I rolled the condom on, then scooted back down the bed, resuming my position between her open legs. “You ready?”

She cupped my chin, bringing my lips toward hers. She kissed me, then laid back, lifting her hips and grinding against me. “Ready as ever.”

I positioned myself and pushed into her. Almost right away, her head lolled back and her eyes snapped closed. But her hips… those were working fine. I moved with her in a steady, increasing rhythm until I was buried inside her.

“This feels….mmmmm...so amazing…”

“Now who’s talking,” I panted, not missing a stroke.

She opened her eyes and smiled, then tightened her thighs around me. “I thought you would feel encouraged.”

“Oh, I do. I feel…” I shuddered as she squeezed her pussy walls around me. “I feel really encouraged right now.”

“You gonna come?”

“You first.”

“I already came, Papi. Go. Please.”

“You sure? I don’t like to—”

She squeezed again, pulsing this time. Milking me. My eyes rolled back in my head. That shit felt good. “Please come for me. I want to take you there. For my own personal satisfaction.”

I let go, then. I sped up my thrusts, pumped hard, ground my hips into hers, let myself enjoy the sounds of her moaning in my ear as I galloped toward my climax.

“I’m… coming…” I was able to get that out, before my own body stiffened and I felt myself release inside her. Right on my heels, Lena arched her back and gasped, then I felt her hips rolling against mine, her breasts thumping against my chest, her breath hot on my neck. I kept moving until she heaved a lung-emptying sigh and fell back, her legs splayed open alongside mine.

We both glistened with sweat. We were both panting, sucking in hot, uncirculated, sex scented air. We were both grinning ear to ear, watching each other come down.

“So, that was a pretty good idea,” I told her, as soon as I could get enough air into my lungs to talk.

“Like sex wasn’t on your list.”

“Eventually. Regular people fucking, though…”

“That was a good idea,” she agreed. Then she reached for me, dropping a sweet, light kiss on my lips. “Happy birthday, JC. I hope we brought it in with a bang.”

“You… you did that on purpose, right?”

“Did what?”

“That pun.”

“What pun?”

I scoffed. “Brought it in with a bang? Are you serious?”

She fell back, giggling hysterically. “I’ve been planning that one all night!”

I rolled toward her, claiming her mouth for another kiss. “Will Barksdale get pissy if I grab some water?”

“He’s a gentle giant. He won’t eat you. Go for it.”