Chapter 59: Negotiations With Wolves

Saturday, December 7, 1985

Darla must have shifted, or I did, because we both blinked awake somewhere in the wee hours of the morning. There was only a little light in the room, but I could see her eyes looking right at me.

I could see her mouth twitch into a smirk, too. Her hand found mine, and dragged it between her legs.

“I’m sore,” she said.

“I’m sorry, honey,” I said.

She grinned and whispered, “But I’d be happier if I was more sore.”

Oh. Well, then. The Wolf woke right up at that!

I growled, turned on a bedside lamp — turned away, so the light was indirect — fetched a condom, and said, “You know how, Little Red.”

She did. Fast learner, my tame little tomboy.

I think she came twice before I did. It might have been as many as four. The first was within seconds of entering her, the last was as I filled the condom.

“Oh, my!” she said, giggling. “I’m definitely going to be sore.”

“You will,” I said.

She leaned in and whispered, “And I’m telling you in advance: I will be most upset if my Wolf doesn’t show me how more sore I can get, later this morning.”

I grinned and kissed her on the forehead.

“Get some sleep, Little Red. The Wolf has needs. You’re going to be taught that.”

“Lucky me!”

I woke to a very pleasant feeling: Darla’s lips wrapped around my cock.

She grinned when she saw I was awake and said, “Just making sure Mister Wolf doesn’t forget his Wolfly duties.”

He hadn’t. She was going to be quite sore, but — knowing both Darla, and the way many girls seemed to be — it would be her badge of honor, and she would love every minute of it.

We got up after this round. It turned out that, yes, she had brought a nice outfit, and an appropriate one. A casual red dress, complete with a hood, with low heels.

I watched as she put it on. Just the dress and the heels. Nothing else.

She grinned.

“Nothing to get in the way of any wolves! That would hardly do.”

Oh, my, was she going to be sore!

We resisted temptation for now, though. I got dressed, with her watching every second of it. Then we went downstairs to the hotel’s restaurant for breakfast.

Neither of us ate heavily. I was hungry, and I think she was, too, but both of us were likely thinking we shouldn’t risk upset stomachs later if we got to some significant exercise.

“Oh ... oh ... oh, dear God, fuuuuuck!” Darla cried out before starting to shudder all over. This time I couldn’t hold out and filled the condom while she was still in mid-orgasm. I was pretty sure she would forgive me.

I was not at all sure there would be another round this way. Darla’s poor pussy was really going to be feeling this, and my cock was probably going to as well. That, and I could really only go so many times.

There were still fingers, and tongues, if she wanted them, but ... while the spirit might have been willing, I suspected the flesh would be weak for a while yet.

After we had finished, and I had gotten rid of the final condom, she wriggled around so she was mostly facing me, head on my shoulder, looking up into my eyes.

“I meant what I said,” she said.

“I meant what I said, too.”

“About loving you.”

“That,” I said.

“Where do we go from here?”

“Wherever we want. Are you planning to try to oust Jas?”

“I don’t want to die a horrible death!” she said. “No. And ... look. Being honest, I can do this because it’s what it is. I needed it to be this way, maybe, because ... you being with Jas makes you trustworthy in a way no other guy is. Not because you aren’t a Mister Right candidate, but because a strong, tough, kick-ass woman I seriously admire is with you for the long run. If you were single, there would be that question: why is this total catch of a man single? When he’s dated the girls he’s dated? It’s weird, but the whole thing is weird.”

“I ... really do get that,” I said.

“So, no. No palace coup. You wouldn’t. She wouldn’t. And ... the other piece of being honest is ... my Mister Right probably won’t share. Or be shared. Now ... don’t ... it’s not ... I could change my mind. But, right now, I want him to be all mine and be all his. You wouldn’t be you if you were in that relationship. I know you would do it for Jas in a minute, and not regret doing it for a minute, but you wouldn’t be you. I would feel insanely guilty making you be monogamous, even if you said it was perfectly fine with you.”

“Interesting,” I said, nodding. “It really does make sense. I think Claire felt much the same way, without putting it quite so clearly.”

“She did,” Darla said. “Not like we haven’t talked.”

“Yet Claire knows nothing personal about you from me.”

“As it should be! And you can assume Linda is going to know basically everything about tonight. And Jas, for that matter.”

“I’m fine with that,” I said.

She giggled and nodded, then said, “Back to ‘Where do we go?’”

“Loving each other is a warning, not a stop. It means I need to be careful to not make it harder for you to move on and go find Mister Right, and you need to be careful, too.”

“I can do that.”

“So, where we go from here is up to you. We’re not done, but I imagine we’ll need to be done sometime next semester. Well ... unless you decide you’re fine with being shared and your Mister Right is good with sharing.”

“Next semester! Check!” she said, giggling. “That’s good. I agree. And I’m good with vague. Summer is maybe the point, but maybe before then. I think we’ll know when we know, but let’s say ... the week before finals is the absolute latest unless both of us say we can continue.”

“That works for me,” I said.

“Honestly, that’s a relief. I mean, I knew tonight wasn’t the end, because ... seriously, catch me, fuck me, dump me? So not you!”

I chuckled and nodded.

“But it’s still a relief. We should have talked about it more, but I was scared of the answer.”

“I get that, and it’s fine.”

We got up, then showered together. Surprising me, she made no move to dress. Instead, she dragged me to a chair, put a towel down, gave me a shove which I took to mean sitting down, then climbed into my lap, wrapping the bedspread around us.

“This is nice,” she said. “I mean ... it really is nice. I had no idea that I liked being naked like this.”

“It really is nice,” I said.

“I wouldn’t want to live it, but what you said about wolves keeping their tomboys naked ... that really touched something in me.”

“I’m glad. That was just teasing, but...”

“Oh, I know!” she said, kissing me quickly. “And I obviously need clothes to be the rest of me. But, with my guy — you, and my eventual Wolf-of-my-own — maybe I want to be naked more often than I ever thought I would.”

“I really doubt he would mind. I know I wouldn’t.”

She giggled and said, “It’s not more fun unwrapping your present?”

“I love unwrapping presents,” I said. “But that can be part of the game, maybe.”

“Maybe. Maybe I’m just naked once unwrapped, and stay that way until ... rewrapped.”

“Would make hotel breakfasts interesting.”

She giggled a lot.

“Oh, hell! Some of those people would have had heart attacks! But naked Little Reds are only for their wolves. No one else gets to see. Wolves get jealous.”

“I’d let Jas see, for instance.”

She wrinkled her nose thoughtfully.

“I ... am nearly certain that girls do nothing for me. To me. Um ... oh, hell! The thought seems all weird, but I ... I mean, rationally speaking, fingers are fingers and tongues are tongues and I like both, so ... um...”

She paused, then said, “I have no fucking idea what I’m saying! I don’t think I would want to do something to a girl, except maybe kissing, but ... if you had asked me if I would like being yanked around by my ponytail, spanked, slapped, and generally manhandled a few months ago, I would have said you were insane. And, now, I want more of all of that! So ... oh, hell! I need to talk to Linda. And maybe Jasmine and Angie. I don’t think I can be swayed to the other side, but once I started rambling, my mind went to the Wolf sending Jasmine between my legs, and ... there’s something there. I’m not saying I want it, and I might just Grandma the whole thing on the spot, but ... that’s really complicated.”

“No rush. I really wasn’t being serious, or even thinking along those lines at all.”

“I know. If this happens, I got myself into it one hundred percent on my own. Anyway ... you were saying you would be jealous if a guy saw me, but not a girl. I mean, while you’re my Wolf.”

“For now. I ... am not a jealous person. Jasmine doesn’t date guys because she doesn’t want to. She has my encouragement to do so if she wants to, and I don’t have the slightest hesitation about her using the hot tub naked with guys around.”

“Oh, dammit! Now I have to rethink that! Because you could maybe get me naked in the hot tub. I mean, if you were there. Even if other guys were there. It might be wise for us to have a bed handy afterward, though.”

“That bed could wind up with Jas watching.”

“Annnnnnd we’re back to my not knowing what to think!” she said, giggling. “Who knew there would be this many questions?! Damn!”

“Answering the ones we want to will be a lot of fun.”

“It will.”

“Switching subjects!” she said. “It’s probably obvious that I enjoy ... what I enjoy ... a lot. Much more than I thought I would, even, and I had high hopes.”

“Obviously, that works to my advantage...”

She giggled and nodded. “I like pleasing my Wolf. And, I mean, I genuinely like pleasing my Wolf. Like ... I get a warm, fuzzy feeling inside when I am. I get a lot of explosive feelings, too, but ... well. When you sent me down to my knees, it was embarrassing but it was perfect for Little Red’s story. Of course, her job is to please her Wolf. But as soon as my mouth was on you, it was also like before. ‘Cuz ... it does make me feel powerful. Teeth, but also being able to do that. But this time it was much stronger. Like ... okay, it’s not my place, Darla’s place, to do anything for any guy just because he says so. Fuck that! But, when it’s my Wolf, it is my place, and ... it feels all warm and fuzzy that it’s my place and I’m doing a good job.”

“Again...” I said.

She giggled.

“Yes, I’m saying what you think I’m saying. Tell me to blow you. Make me blow you! Make me do other things you like. Like ... honestly, maybe part of my enjoying being naked is you making it clear you liked me naked yesterday. It’s fun, and I feel like I’m being pleasing.”

“I’ll enjoy keeping you naked,” I said. “But ... with some unwrapping.”

“Heck,” she said. “The Wolf has won the chase. I’m caught. But, if he wanted to chase me some anyway...”

“Spankings if you lose?”

“Would I suggest that?” she said, trying to look innocent.

“I don’t know. Would you?”

Before she could answer, I kissed her, then said, “Don’t answer that. I love that we can talk. But you told me to tell you things I like, and your being a bit of a mischievous brat who sometimes needs reminding that she’s now a tamed tomboy is something I like.”

“Deal!” she said, grinning. “But I do have more to say.”

“Please!”

“The biggest thing is: I have no regrets,” she said. “Not one. This was ... you’re not Mister Right, but this whole weekend, and definitely the moment you claimed me, is going to be a top memory of my life forever. And that’s fine. It’s better than fine — it’s wonderful. Mister Right and I can make new memories together. It’s...”

She bit her lip, then said, “I spent a lot of time thinking this through after Mom and I talked, and I realized something. Something obvious, but Mom didn’t say it and I didn’t realize it until later. It’s ... for him to be ... for him to make things nearly as good — for him to make it special, like all of this — he would have to have practiced. And, if he had practiced, then ... that’s ... it’s fine, but it’s a little weird. Like, if it was a big deal for me to wait, why is it also a big deal — in a good way — that he didn’t? Because ... I just ... I seriously can’t imagine having my first time being some fumbling mess where we can sort-of figure it out and stuff maybe works but it doesn’t ... catch fire ... compared to this. I just can’t. It might be its own form of ‘special,’ but now we’re taking the already unlikely — perfect guy, first time, lifelong love — and adding to it a whole extra twist.”

I nodded.

“That’s a double standard that’s maybe as old as humanity. I don’t know. I thought it was stupid long before Jasmine and I met. Heck, long before I dated anyone! It’s dumb. You decide when it’s right for you. I would have completely supported you if you’d said no.”

“‘Grandma,’” she said, giggling. “If I’d said ‘no’ I would’ve been fucked. Literally, I mean.”

“Grandma means no,” I said, grinning and nodding.

“There’s another thing I have no regrets about.”

“Tell me?”

“I’m glad it happened this way. Meaning ... high school not working out for us. And us only reconnecting last spring. I wasn’t ready until now.”

“Honestly, I wasn’t either,” I said. “Oh, for sex, sure. Obviously.”

She giggled and nodded.

“But not to be your Wolf. Not even close to ready. I will always be grateful to you for helping me find this side of myself. I never needed to be this person, so I wasn’t. Why chase a girl when it’s fraught with risk — rejection, confusion, failures in consent, and so on — when there are others who are eager? We didn’t fit at all in high school. You wanted something I couldn’t do. I wanted something you couldn’t do.”

“Linda tried to teach me to, but this ... this is incredibly better. She is going to explode when she hears.”

I chuckled.

“Girl talk! I am constantly amazed by it.”

“Linda made me swear on my grave and my parents’ grave that I would give her full and explicit details if, and I quote, ‘You ever get Steve to nail your ass, girl!’”

I chuckled at that.

She got a really odd look in her eye and grinned.

“What?”

“Nothing,” she said, teasingly.

I moved my fingers as if to tickle her, and she said, “Noooo! No, Mister Wolf! I’m going to tell you, but in my own time.”

“That’s fine,” I said.

“You can tell me something, though. This isn’t about sex, or wolves, or anything like that. I’m just curious.”

“Oh?”

“Was that a platinum card I saw?”

Busted!

“It was,” I said. “Don’t tell my dad. He probably wouldn’t understand, not yet.”

“Who are you, Steve Marshall?” she said. Her eyes were glittering, though.

“I am Big Bad Wolf, International Man of Mystery,” I said. Eat your heart out, Austin Powers!

She giggled at that.

“Really,” I said, “I’m a Memorial kid who got lucky. Right family, right friends, right girlfriend, right extracurricular, right history-assignment team...”

She blushed at that.

“The whole thing. I’m lucky. It’s the luck that dovetails with hard work, but there’s luck. Different choices, and I might never have met you. Or Jasmine. Or anyone.”

She nodded.

“And the card?”

“Luck,” I said.

She giggled again.

“Seriously!” I said. “They sent me an offer for it. It made no sense to me why they would offer it to a college sophomore, but we were going to England for the summer. I knew their travel service was good, and I knew they really busted their butts to help platinum cardholders. I think it paid off in a lot of little ways on the trip. Some big ones, too. It probably helped nab this room, and this room is why we got to have a hall chase. I’m not a rich playboy or anything, but I do okay, and ... sometimes you need to pull out a few stops. The reason you have money is to spend it. Wisely, but there are times when the wise course is to spend what it takes to do it right.”

She nodded.

“I like that. It just threw me. Like, how do you have one of those cards? It makes a lot of sense, that way. And ... yeah. You’re no rich playboy, but ... you ... all of you ... you have more going on than most kids our age. Even the Memorial ones, before you say we’re all exceptional.”

“We are, though,” I said, which got her giggling and shaking her head. “Yes, we have a lot going on, but that’s four years of busting our asses juggling multiple extracurriculars and keeping standards up. Something you know plenty about.”

“I never said I wasn’t extraordinary,” she said, eyes twinkling. “I am the prize, and you had better not forget it.”

“Never, my Lady,” I said, taking her hand and kissing it. “The Wolf knows he has a rare prize of immense worth. And that is it not his to keep, but rather to keep safe for the one who will make you their Little Red. And their Lady.”

“Damn!” she said. “Seriously! If I didn’t already love you, that might have done it! And yet I have to part with you! But what you just said fits that and helps! No wonder you won all of those tournaments.”

“As best as I can remember, I never talked a girl out of her panties at a tournament. Not even my own girlfriend!”

She giggled a lot.

“Different use of skills. Similar skills.”

“You know as well as I do that there’s no sweet-talking in CX.”

“Okay, fine. I do know that!” she said, grinning. “But there is in S-E-X.”

“Meg would not allow us to sign up for that event.”

“Fuddy-duddy!”

She looked up at me.

“We have this room until two?”

“If we want it.”

“What I want is to soak in a tub with my Wolf again, rest my poor, well-used pussy, have a nice leisurely lunch, and then leave,” she said.

“That sounds wonderful.”

“Oh, and I want my Wolf getting every second of naked Little Red he deserves. Can we order room service?”