Chapter 10

Imagined memories are a challenge when looking back over your life. It is something that Andrew had found repeatedly. With Ara this manifested itself in a confusing way. Ara was his teenage crush but she was a woman he had seen infrequently. She was also someone with whom he had managed to miscommunicate with and misunderstand many times. Yet she was an important part of his life. So that he had only had sex with her twice seemed the opposite of an imagined memory, surely there were other times that he had forgotten. But that was it. Twice. Six months apart as well. Andrew thought he knew and understood Ara and remembered great sex but it was infrequent and comparatively ancient history.

As they walked the two flights of stairs to his bedroom all of this was flashing through Andrew’s mind. Her old flat in Edinburgh, the first time he had stayed at someone’s house, holding her in his arms as they slept. But then his bedroom door closed with finality and he was jerked back to reality as Ara turned to face him. Pushing Andrew back against the door her lips met his. There was nothing frantic about it, nothing forced or hurried or rushed. They had kissed like this before over the last year as they parted outside her flat. But this time they both knew that it was leading somewhere and the passion amped up. They both had held back before so as not to leave them frustrated. Now?

It was mostly mental. It wasn’t that they weren’t trying with the kissing but they both knew that it was merely the prelude to much more. And because of that they didn’t focus on it as much, yet at the same time because they knew it was one of the stages on a journey with a different destination they were into it. It seemed contradictory but they were not trying harder with their kisses but rather their minds and bodies were more receptive because they knew how this was going to end.

Andrew pulled away and spun Ara round. Flipping her hair to one side he kissed her neck. He undressed her with considered determination. He was not ripping clothes off her like a seven year old with a Christmas present but Andrew wanted Ara naked in his arms. He dropped to his knees behind her and pulled her knickers down, holding his hand out so that she could balance as she kicked them away. She in turn pulled him to his feet and helped him strip as well, caressing and fondling his straining dick.

“Lie on the bed, face down please.”

Ara made herself comfortable as Andrew grabbed some condoms from the box in the bathroom before returning to the bed. He threw the condoms on the bedside table before straddling Ara’s thighs. It was not a day or a moment for spending an hour just on kissing and caressing the back of her body but he didn’t want to rush straight to fucking her either. So Andrew worshiped Ara’s body from neck to ankles, and back again. Lots of kisses across her smooth skin, a lot of time spent licking the crease at the top of her thighs, where they met her arse. As he kissed his way down her legs rather than straddling her he knelt between them, pushing them apart and allowing him to kiss and nibble his way up her inner thighs. Ara’s musky aroma washed over him and tested his self-control. He tapped her on the bum and she flipped over. Andrew pushed her legs together, for his own control as much as anything else, before repeating his ravishing, this time on her front. He remembered about her nipples, how could he forget, but he had forgotten that Ara’s left collarbone was an erogenous zone. Not the right one, just the left one. Tonguing the hollow under it produced the first groan out of Ara’s mouth. But he continued south down her body.

Ara had incredibly sensitive nipples, almost as sensitive as a clit is on another woman. In contrast, her clit was semi-recessed, and hardly had any sensitivity. Andrew knew that he could, and had in the past, made Ara come repeatedly just by playing with her nipples. It is an odd thing to think, but it seemed too easy. Life would be a perpetual feast where the starter left Andrew full and satiated. He was determined to skip it and enjoy the main course instead. One of the many benefits was that they would always come together. But right at that moment Andrew’s focus was on building the tease, not spiking Ara through the roof. His fingers traced round her boobs, circling higher before falling away again. Her areolae were worse than her clit. Although they were puffy and looked spectacular they were not sensitive at all. His fingers teased all the way up and around them without ever touching her nipples. Andrew’s lips joined his fingers, again licking and kissing the crease, this time under her boobs. On a hot summer’s day there was a tantalising tang there, not delicious per se but definitely a turn-on. Andrew never touched Ara’s nipples even when his mouth was latched over the whole areolae and they were at the mercy of his tongue. When he moved away again Ara’s groan was one of frustration.

As he slid down her body Andrew once again moved between Ara’s thighs. He knelt there for a moment looking down at the vision splayed out in front of him. Arabella Lindsay was a beautiful woman. She had a long angular face with dark eyes and dark hair. When he looked at her body she looked darker than he remembered. Her skin had a tinge to it, Mediterranean maybe, but maybe he was seeing what he wanted to see. She was nowhere near as dark as Rupashi but there was something about her, about the way she looked that was an intoxicant to him. Andrew lowered his head to her stomach and kissed his way down between her legs, revelling in the power of her body. Andrew had endlessly talked about intelligence being his biggest turn-on, way more than any physical characteristic. But as he kissed Ara above her pubic hair, and again as he kissed her thighs he realised that he liked women with strong cores. Maybe the better way to say it was athletic bodies, or swimmer’s bodies, something like that. Suzanne and Ara were swimmers, Renee had been a gymnast, Lilja had played volleyball. It didn’t explain everybody but there was definitely a pattern. But he was also thinking ahead. Andrew liked making women with these strong cores lose control. To feel the power in their bodies, to feel their thighs try to crush him, that too turned him on. As he kissed up Ara’s thighs Andrew could feel the musculature and suddenly he wanted this strong woman to be a sobbing mess.

As his tongue licked her pussy lips, all puffy and dripping with desire, his fingers followed right behind. Two fingers slipped into her and went searching. They found what they were looking for and started the beckoning forward motion that works every time. It was a jarring end to the slow and steady build-up he had spent the last twenty minutes working on. It was cruel the way he maintained the pressure but the way her body reacted was everything Andrew could hope for and more. Ara pushed herself off the bed to try and ease the pressure, her thighs repeatedly smacked his head, he could see the muscles and tendons in her legs and abdomen flex and tense over and over. It was only going to end one way and he was shoved unceremoniously away from her. Lifting himself over Ara’s right leg Andrew crawled up the bed and held her in his arms. She lay there for a minute before looking up at him from his shoulder.

“What did I ever do to you? Goodness Andrew. You had me tingling all over, slowly and steadily going crazy, then all of a sudden I couldn’t stop coming, it was cruel the way it was so sudden.”

He kissed her gently and then explained how the muscles in her core, her underlying strength just got to him and he couldn’t stop himself. Ara giggled.

“I have had guys check out my legs, and every woman gets her tits looked at, but my core. Really?”

He sheepishly nodded.

“I need to spend more time at the pool if that is your reaction.”

They kissed for a long time, his hands caressing her bum. Andrew reached out and grabbed a condom and handed it to Ara. Without a word, but making no attempt to hide a big smile she climbed onto him and straddled his thighs. Once he was carefully wrapped she shuffled up the bed and lined herself up with him. She didn’t drop down but she pushed through quickly and swiveled her hips as their groins met. Andrew put his hands either side of his head in the ‘I surrender’ pose and her smile got even wider. Grabbing his wrists in a tight grasp they kissed as Ara started fucking him. She nipped his bottom lip as she moved back to see him. Her eyes were sparkling with an intense look in them.

“Tell me I am in control Andrew. Don’t just fuck my body, fuck with my mind as well.”

“Lay your body on top of mine so that I can whisper in your ear.”

Ara complied and he kissed her earlobe.

“I remember you telling me about all the books that were passed around at your school, all the different men that seduced the young women. What did you call it? ‘As they were taken’. And that first night you lay there, just as they described. But now look at you. Dragging me upstairs to my own bedroom, in control, holding me down, holding me in place. Feel your body, your hips rocking up and down.”

It didn’t take much for Ara’s breath to shorten and her orgasm drove Andrew to his own. Their hips picked up the pace and he pulled his hands free to grab her hips as he went for broke. His orgasm when it hit had Andrew thrusting his hips up off the bed, he could feel every pulse as it sought freedom and was trapped in the little latex bulb. After dealing with the condom he pulled Ara back up onto his chest and she stretched out languidly along his body. He held her and kissed her. She scooted down a little and rested her chin on her hands far enough away that they could both focus.

“I remember our first night. You totally exploded everything I had ever thought about sex. It was years ago and it is if it was a dream. I have never had another night of passion like that. I want to gorge on you this weekend. I have a sex exam on Monday and I need to cram all weekend. I can’t pay you but I will trade you.”

She wriggled on him suggestively. Like he needed persuading.

“I won’t drain you dry but you will need a day to recover by the time I am done with you.”

All that got him was more wriggling.

“What do you mean you want to gorge? Just lots of sex or do you want to push some boundaries?”

“Mostly the former, but I am open to a gentle nudge every now and again as well.”

The amazing thing was it was not awkward. There was no coy shyness or anything like that. And as it was only mid-afternoon there was no rush either.

“You said you never had another night of passion like we had all those years ago. Why not?”

A slightly too long pause.

“I found it difficult getting over you to be honest. Not in the sense of expecting you to turn up again or anything like that it was more. Oh, I don’t know. You were kind to me, despite being 18 months younger you were more experienced and then there was all the stuff with my feelings on top of all that. Even today my heart was trying to jump out of my chest as we climbed the stairs. So I was shy, worried about not being very good at sex, and confused about you, all at the same time. So rather than become easier it went the other way and it was more difficult. Now most of that was in my head but it was also real. It built up over time, and was not helped by the first couple of guys I tried going out with after you were jerks, and the one I did sleep with was lousy in bed. Lots of reasons.”

For too many people that was a familiar story. But for Leslie and Kenzie that could have been Andrew. They fucked twice more that afternoon. Ara was giddy about her plan to ‘gorge’ and was always ready to do more. He did not try and rein in her enthusiasm but was pretty sure she was going to ache in unusual places the next day. But she needed to find that out for herself. In the early evening they both showered and headed out to grab some dinner. Andrew was lucky in that there were two competing pubs at the end of the street so they randomly decided to try The Footman first. There was not much of a food menu in the evening but they managed to survive and Andrew had his first drinks at one of his two locals. He and Ara chatted away but were also doing some people watching.

“It is not very busy, is it?”

“Most of the buildings around here are offices Andrew, it is probably a lunchtime and after work place during the week. It is later now so people have moved on. There are not many houses left in the area, and those that are left are full of people unlikely to come down for a pint. This is Mayfair, I am sure there is a wine bar close by.”

Andrew loved the derisive way Ara said wine bar.

“I am glad you brought that point up. It is one of the things I have been considering.”

“What do you mean?”

“Whether I should live there. It is not a huge house but it is still more than 3,000 square feet over 4 stories and it has five bedrooms. I think the flat in Edinburgh is 750 square feet, maybe a little more, but that is all I need. You saw the place. What do I need with a dining room table that can hold 12 comfortably? It seems too much house for what I need right now, or in the immediate future. I have thought about letting it out again, maybe for another five years.”

Ara looked surprised at this.

“My initial reaction was to tell you that you are crazy. But I can see your point. You are 21, you shouldn’t have a place that needs a housekeeper. Where would you try and get a place?”

“I don’t know, somewhere on the Tube. But I will probably end up having to pay more now for a flat than I paid for this place. Somewhere further west I guess. I thought about it when I was rattling around in the house on my own.”

“The fact that you own it is amazing, given where we are, right in the heart of Mayfair. I think you should consider the benefits of being able to walk everywhere, being nice and central. I know that you are not planning to move out to the commuter belt but commuting gets old in a hurry. I have listened to Dad moan about it all my life.”

“I don’t think I am going to make a snap decision, although it will be an indulgence to have two homes sitting empty while I am up at Cambridge. It is way more than an indulgence but I will have to decide what to do with the Edinburgh flat when I graduate.”

They were chatting away, inconsequential stuff, nothing pressing and just enjoying dinner and a drink. But of course Andrew was thinking about him and Ara, what this weekend meant to them, did it mean anything. She seemed to have been as horny as him and did they both just need a good fuck? When he was back in West Berlin maybe the weekend would not seem as significant but right then it felt like they had taken a significant step. After they finished their pub supper they walked for a couple of blocks in the neighbourhood. As Andrew walked past a Rolls-Royce showroom on Berkeley Square he wondered if this was the place for him. He needed to live there to get a sense of the area, the neighbourhood, but it felt very alien to him as the two of them walked arm in arm. All the anticipation of finally getting into the house and within a month Andrew as wondering what all the fuss was about. Hmmm.

“You seem a million miles away Andrew, is there something wrong?”

“Sorry I was just thinking about the house and being here in Mayfair. Ever since I bought the place, and the anticipation has grown each year as I have got ever closer to finally gaining access to the house, I have wanted to live here. But in an abstract way. This is my house in Mayfair, all very exciting without really thinking through what it means. Look at the two of us, walking past all these deserted offices. I look at where we are, the types of businesses that are around here and I don’t see myself fitting in. The reality of living here does not seem to be as appealing as the idea of living here.”

“There are some flats and houses Andrew. Why don’t you think you could live here?”

“I think it is too much of a change from the last three years. I live in buildings that are hundreds of years old at Cambridge but it is a young vibrant place. My flat is right in the heart of all the students in Edinburgh. I am used to more bustle, more oh I don’t know, background noise. Something like that. This seems sterile in comparison.”

Ara smiled but did not radiate sympathy.

“You are a lucky guy Andrew, to have these kinds of problems. I am worried about having somewhere to stay when I get back from Istanbul and you are worried about whether you want to live in your house in Mayfair.”

She didn’t chide him but her verbal bucket of cold water did the trick.