Chapter 50: New Year’s Eve

And so, a few days later, I drove to Karen’s house to pick her up. There was a little snow on the ground, and it was cold enough for gloves and a winter coat. I parked and knocked at her door, and she opened it moments later.

“Well, are you going to come in, or are you just going to stand there?”

I couldn’t help myself. When she opened the door I was struck dumb. She was wearing a black satin sheath dress that looked like it had been custom-fitted for her. If there had ever been any doubt about what kind of figure she had, this dress dispensed with it.

She had on low heels, and I think she also had stockings on, too. She had the pi pendant I gave her for Christmas around her neck, prominent against the black fabric. With just a touch of lipstick and eye shadow, she took my breath away.

I finally stepped in and she closed the door.

“You look stunning, Karen. And now I do feel under-dressed. Maybe I can just walk behind you and carry your coat, pretend I’m the chauffeur or something.”

“Let’s look at you, then. Take off your coat.”

So I did. She looked me up and down, then walked behind me and did the same thing. “You’ll be fine, Tom. Someday, when you get some money, I’d like to take you out and help you buy some new clothes. I do believe you’d clean up real nice.”

“Thank you. I think.”

I helped her on with her coat, and she locked up. She gave me directions to Carly’s house, not that far away as it turned out.

“Tell me, how is it you know Carly? I don’t think I’ve met her.”

“We grew up together, best friends since we were kids. Her parents enrolled her in private school in eighth grade. Not the same private school as my former friends, whom you met. We get together pretty frequently, and speak on the phone a lot. I like her. She’s heard a lot about you, Carter. Expect many questions.”

“Exactly what have you told her about me?”

“Worried about your super-stud status, Carter? No need. She doesn’t know anything about that part of it. But I did tell her I’m in love with you. She’ll probably get a little protective, make sure you’re up to her standards.”

We rang the bell, and in a few moments it opened wide, and Karen and, I presumed, Carly hugged each other.

“And who’s this, Bunny?” asked Carly.

“Tom, this is Carla Fletcher. Carly, Tom Carter.”

I shook hands with her, then looked at Karen. “Bunny? You’re a ‘Bunny’? Oh, do tell.”

“Carter, if you say anything to anyone, I swear you’ll regret it.”

“Okay, but the price is that I want all the details. No, you know what? I’ll ask Carly. I’m more likely to get the truth from her.”

We left our coats on a bench just inside the door and went in to join the party. It wasn’t in full swing yet, but there were fifteen or twenty people there. I knew a couple of them and we smiled at each other, but the rest were strangers.

There was wine and beer and soft drinks, and various snacks. I asked Karen what she’d like, and she wanted a little white wine. I had a Coke, and found some corn chips. Karen was in conference with a couple of other girls I didn’t recognize. I brought her her wine and was introduced and appraised. I maintained a discreet silence, beginning to feel a little like I was on display.

But I realized it was a big deal for Karen to be finally introducing me to her friends. She was a private person, and in all the time I’d known her, she’d never really included me into her circle of friends. I didn’t know if she wanted to keep these parts of her life separate, or what. But I put on my best smile, and tried to be personable.

I confess I cheated a little. To each of the friends Karen was speaking with I linkcast a feeling of “friendly, trustworthy, likeable, really adores Karen.” I looked at it as a timesaver, rather than cheating. I could have done the same thing with some long conversations, smiles and jokes, but it would have taken much of the evening.

The upshot was that in short order they were all friendly toward me, and giving smiles of approval to Karen.

At some point, Carly stopped on her rounds and asked if we were enjoying ourselves. We congratulated her on a lovely party. “There’ll be food later. I mean real food. Lasagna and ham and salad and desserts.”

“Sounds great. So, Carly. Tell me more about Bunny. How did that name come about? I want all the details. No, Karen, not a word, please.”

I took Carly’s arm and led her off a few steps. “So how long have you two known each other, Carly?” I asked her.

“We met in first grade, so we were about six. We hit it off right away, and started hanging out.”

“And when did she become ‘Bunny’ instead of Karen?”

“We had a neighbor who raised rabbits. One of the does had a litter of kits, and Karen begged the man for one. When the kits got old enough, he gave one to Karen. She named it ‘Peaches’ and her dad built a hutch for it in the backyard. She doted on that rabbit, couldn’t stop talking about it, so much so that we started calling her ‘Bunny’. It stuck, and we still call her that.”

“Ah, I see. I’ll put that away for now,” I said, “but someday I might need to use it.”

Carly started asking me questions, about college, my interests, family, how I met Karen. But before too long it was apparent that this wasn’t just friendly party chit-chat, it was an interrogation.

I got some rather pointed questions about how I was treating Karen, and precisely what my interests in her were in the long run. It circled around the edge of uncomfortable, until Carly was called away to deal with some kitchen emergency. I made my escape while I could.

Karen had finished her wine while she was talking and laughing with her friends. I glanced at her empty glass and raised an eyebrow. She nodded and I took it and filled it halfway with wine again. I brought it back to her.

“Thanks, Tom. You doing okay meeting all these new people?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. In fact, I’m learning all kinds of new things about you. This is fun. Mostly. I got the interrogation from Carly.”

“Glad you’re having a good time, mostly, and Carly is just being protective, like I warned you.”

“I like learning about you. Things I never would have suspected because they don’t fit the image you’ve created for yourself. Fun things.”

She never got her answer out, because Carly called, “Food’s on. Hurry up or be left out!”

I said, “Let’s get something to eat. Bunny.”

She gave me an elbow in the ribs, but took my arm on the way in. It was catered food, but very good. I got a little of everything and stuffed my face. Karen had some lasagna and a lot of salad. We found a place on a sofa and cleaned our plates.

“I may have seconds,” I said. “Can I get you some more?”

She shook her head, and sat back on the sofa with her wine. I brought back some more lasagna and found my seat again. She was laid back on the sofa, looking mellow, with a half smile on her lips.

“You look nice, Karen, relaxed, kind of happy. And beautiful.”

“Thanks, Tom. I’m glad I’m here, and that you’re here, too.”

She turned her head to look at me, and smiled conspiratorially. “You know I brought you here to show you off, right? I wanted my friends to meet you.”

“I kinda figured that out about ten minutes after we got here. Did I pass muster?”

“Yeah, you did. My friends like you. That means a lot to me. What time is it anyway?

“About ten till midnight.”

She leaned in toward me, close to my ear. “Let’s ring in the New Year, and sing Auld Lang Syne, then let’s go, back to my place. The wine’s made me a little nostalgic and a little bit horny. I was thinking about the last time we were together and how it made me feel. I’d like to do that again. Would that be okay?”

“I think that would be more than okay. I think that would be the perfect start to the New Year, spending it with the perfect person.”

She gave me a smile and a kiss on the cheek.

When the countdown started, we stood up with the others. As I sang, I was trying to remember if I ever actually learned the words to the song. I just seemed to know them. We stood there singing, our arms around each other’s waists, her head on my shoulder. At the end, she leaned into me, wrapped her arms around my neck, and gave me a long kiss. Several of her friends broke into applause, accompanied by a few friendly catcalls.

Carly put out desserts just then. Karen said, “Go ahead. You know you want to. I’ll make the rounds and say goodbye while you stuff your face.”

I had apple pie, with a scoop of cherry vanilla ice cream, and coffee. By the time I finished, Karen was nearly done with her rounds, and I rejoined her.

“This was nice, Karen. I’m glad I got to meet some of the people from the other part of your life, before we met each other.”

“You ready to go, Tom?”

I nodded, and we found our coats, put them on, and called our goodbyes as we left.

It was no more than five minutes to Karen’s place. I parked on the street, and she took my arm as we walked to the side door and she unlocked it.

I helped her off with her coat and found a hanger for it in the closet. She was bent on one leg removing her shoe. It was very sexy.

“You know all the guys there were giving you the eye, right? They were trying to be clever about it because they were all with their girlfriends and there’d be hell to pay if they were caught. But I was watching them, and every one of them was thinking, ‘Why couldn’t I have found someone like her?’”

She smiled at me. “Guys can be so naive. Of course I saw them looking. Why do you think I wore this dress? And some of the girls who were there tonight were the same ones who used to make fun of me for working so hard in school. ‘You’ll never get a guy if you’re smarter than they are, Bunny. Let them be the smart one.’ So I showed them that I can be sexy and smart and still get a good-looking guy.”

I put on my best shocked expression. “So that’s what I am? Arm candy? I feel so ... used.”

“There, there. Don’t worry your pretty little head over it.”

I laughed, because it was funny to have the roles reversed, and she smiled. I held out my hand and she came to me, and I leaned in and kissed her.

“Happy New Year, Karen. Big changes coming this year, and I’m not looking forward to all of them, but I’m happy to spend what time we have left with each other.”

“Amen to that. Come with me.”

She took my by the hand and led me upstairs, and down a hall. She turned in at the last door.

“This is mine.”

It was a fairly large room, in scale with the size of the house, I suppose. Other than the women’s clothes on hangers and the cosmetics, it didn’t look so much like a typical “girly” room. There were trophies on a dresser, and awards on the walls, but they weren’t sports awards, they were for academic achievement and winning science fairs and the like.

“Ever have a guy up here before, Sunderland, or am I the first?”

“I had Billy Conneely up here once. But we were nine and playing Monopoly. So, other than him, no.”

“Then I’m honored. And I have a different game in mind. There really aren’t any rules, but the goal is to make your partner feel good. And the best part about the game is that we both win.”

“That sounds like a fun game. Show me how you start.”

I put my arms around her and nibbled on her earlobes and her neck, while running my hands slowly over her back and her butt. At some point I moved to her lips and kissed her with a little tongue. I could feel her relax into me. I hadn’t channeled or linkcast anything at all to her yet.

My hands had settled on her butt cheeks. The dress, by the way it was cut, really showed off her ass. At the party I had had to suppress a couple of urges to reach out and grab it, but I let myself go now. Apparently she liked it, because I could hear little sighs coming from her throat.

I let my right hand move up to her neck, while the other one stayed on her ass, fondling and squeezing. I let my right hand wander until it found the zipper on the back of her dress, then pulled it slowly downward until there was nowhere else to go. The whole trip took over a minute.

I pulled myself off her lips, reluctantly, and took a step back. The dress didn’t appear as snug across the front now. I looked into her eyes and took one of the short sleeves in my hand and pulled it toward me, while she drew her arm back through the sleeve. I did the same to the other side, and the top part of the dress fell down to her waist.

She was wearing the same deep cream color bra, with the brown lace trim that had made me catch my breath at Aunt Betsy’s when I was dog-sitting. It still looked spectacular.

“No matter how many times I see this, Karen, it’s still like a punch in the gut. I find it hard to breathe.”

“I may need a little help with the dress, Tom. It’s a little snug around the hips. Would you?”

“I was a Boy Scout. We’re trained to assist. Allow me.”

It was a little snug, but by tugging on the hem of the dress while Karen wiggled her hips, it eventually fell to the floor.

“Oh. My. God.”

I was at a loss for words. That pathetic utterance was the best my highly-honed language skills could come up with at that particular moment, because words were inadequate.

I hadn’t been wrong. She was wearing stockings, a kind of sheer, pale gray. Not pantyhose, but stockings, held up with a matching garter belt to the bra and panty set. It made every Playboy/Penthouse centerfold layout look like little girls playing dress-up by comparison. It was the most sensual picture I could ever imagine.

“Sweet Jesus, Sunderland. I am struck nearly dumb. That is the sexiest, most erotic thing I have ever seen.” I brushed my hair out of my eyes, and I realized that my hand was trembling.

“Look at this, Karen. This is what you’ve done to me.” I held up my shaking hand.

She reached down and took my hand, helping me to my feet. She smiled at me and said, “You’ll be fine, Carter. You recently had pie, so soldier on. Where were we?”

“I think I was in the middle of a stroke, but don’t mind me, it’s not important. Give me a moment while I get rid of these things.”

I was wearing lace-up shoes, so there was a little fumbling due to my shaking hands, but I eventually got them and the rest of my clothes off. Still wearing her underwear, she looked more naked than I.

“Lie down next to me, Karen, because my knees are shaking. I need to look at you for awhile.”

Her body always appeared new to me, as if I were seeing it with new eyes each time, finding some little thing I had overlooked on previous examinations. I kissed her breasts through the thin fabric of her bra, which made it somehow more erotic. I tweaked a nipple through her bra, which made her catch her breath.

“Do you ever get tired of hearing me tell you how gorgeous you are? Does it get boring?”

“Not yet. Keep telling me, I’ll let you know when it gets to be too much.”

“Lying here with you reminds me of a fantasy I had just after I met you. I’d think of it late at night, under the covers, while trying to get to sleep. And having thought of it, it made it more difficult to get to sleep. Basically, you’d invited me up to your room for something innocuous, borrowing a math book or something, and one thing led to another and suddenly we were both naked in your bed. I knew it was a fantasy and would never happen, but it was so much fun to think about.”

“Ooooo, Tom, I don’t think you’ve ever told me any of your fantasies. I don’t mean the usual sex experimentation things, which aren’t really fantasies, but the kind of thing where you make me dress up as Princess Leia, for example, and have your way with me on the bridge of the Millennium Falcon. That kind of fantasy.”

“It has possibilities, Karen. I’ll start making a list, if you’ll do the same. But right now, this is my fantasy, right here, making love to you in your own bed, with you wearing that sexy fucking garter belt. Why do those things always get guys’ engines revving?”

“I think that will require much deeper analysis than we have time for right now. I believe my mother has a psychiatrist friend. Should I make you an appointment?”

“If it’s a male psychiatrist, he probably has the same fetish I do, so it probably won’t do me much good. I’ll just have to work through it myself. It may take some time.”

I wormed one arm under her and rolled her over so she was lying mostly on top of me, where I got her in a lip lock and squeezed the cheeks of her ass. That got her squirming a little. I was relieved that I hadn’t lost my touch.

Reaching behind her, I unhooked her bra and felt her breasts brush my chest. She pulled away and let the bra slip off her arms and dropped it on the floor. She slid up a little further on the bed, then leaned down on two arms so her boobs were hanging over my face. One of my favorite things to do. Well, two of my favorite things.

By moving my head a little I could suck on and lick her nipples. I could see she had her eyes closed so she could focus on the sensations of my lips and tongue. She probably didn’t need any help at all with her gratification, but one of my great joys was to see her wrapped up in a blanket of pleasure, luxuriating in the sensations assaulting her. So I linkcast her the Foundation image, which would sensitize her skin and her other senses, and increase her relaxation.

I slipped my fingers into the sensitive area between her butt cheeks where they meet the top of her thighs, between her legs. That made her whimper, just a bit, so I kept it up until I could feel her start to shift her hips and move into my fingers.

Her arms folded, and she melted into my chest with a sigh. “Carter, that feels so nice. I like that.”

“What a coincidence! So do I! I know a few other things you might like. Watch.”

I rolled her over on her back and kissed my way from her neck down to her navel. I let my fingers brush very, very lightly between her legs as I did so, which made her suck in her breath several times.

When I reached her hips I took the waistband of her panties and pulled them down. She lifted her hips a bit to help me, and I slipped them down over her knees. She kicked them onto the floor.

I sat and watched her for a moment, letting my hand stroke her thigh. I wondered why women can sometimes look more naked when they have just socks or just a necklace on, than if they wore nothing at all. Then I realized that it was an artistic thing, much like a painter would set up a scene so the placement of objects would bring the eye’s focus to a central point which the artist wanted the viewer to appreciate.

In Karen’s case, the stockings drew the eye upwards like an arrow to her pussy, and the garter belt marked the perimeter of the zone of interest just like a picture frame. It was perfect.

I leaned in and kissed the little tuft of pubic hair above her pussy, while my fingers urged her thighs apart. I could feel her respiration increase, sounding a little shallow, as I kissed and nibbled my way south.

I repositioned myself so I was kneeling between her legs, my mouth in front of her cunt. It still looked as beautiful as the first time I had seen it.

“Pull your knees back, Karen, let me see.”

She brought her knees back above her chest, and that spread her labia a little so I could lean in and kiss my way downward. I avoided touching her clit yet, as I wanted to bring her up slowly. I licked my way lower, then probed the entrance to her pussy with my tongue. “Oh, good, Tom, right there, baby.”

I wanted her to bring about her own orgasms. I could always send her one, but with Karen it sort of felt like cheating. I didn’t have a problem finding out what was turning her on and doing more of that, provided she brought about her own climax.

So I hooked in to her epicenter and looked around until I found that odd little “pleasure gauge” that monitored her state of arousal, and served as an indicator of how much she was liking (or disliking) what I was currently doing to her. Right now, she seemed to be liking it just fine, hovering around the middle of the scale, around 55 on a scale of zero to 100.

You understand, I hope, that this ‘gauge’ wasn’t a real thing in the way that you know it. It’s just a word I use to describe something you might recognize. The thing that was there performed a similar measurement function so I call it a ‘gauge’.

I pushed a little harder, trying to get my tongue in. I wished it were a little longer, ‘cause I think she’d really like that, but she seemed to be enjoying what I was doing. I kept it up for a few minutes more, until I could hear her talking quietly to herself. I couldn’t hear what she was saying, but I kinda knew the gist of it.

I dropped my tongue a little lower, onto her perineum, and she jumped. “Oh, oh, yes.” She pulled her knees back closer to her head, which rolled her hips back, exposing more of the perineum and her asshole. When my tongue poked at her asshole she cried, “Fuck, yeah, Tom, do that!”

I took two fingers and rubbed them over her clitoral hood, not yet touching her clit, while my tongue probed her asshole. Her hands had dropped down onto the back of my head so she could control it after a fashion. Seventy-five. I suddenly pushed in hard with my tongue, trying to force it into her ass, and increased the speed of my fingers brushing her clit through the hood.

“Yes, yes, ohmigod, yes, oh, shit.” I was tapping her clit now, through the hood, not too fast, and she was responding, “Don’t stop, baby, keep going!”

The meter was creeping up to the top of the scale. I could feel her body vibrating as she tried to push my head closer, then she went rigid and gasped. “Yes, yes, yes, keep going, I’m cumming.” She held on tightly for another minute, then pushed me off.

“Oh, fuck, wait, wait, just for a minute. Too much.”

I moved to the side and squirmed up next to her, as she straightened her legs. She turned toward me and put an arm around me, her eyes still closed.

“I don’t know why I’m so sensitive today, but I came really hard, then it got quickly over-sensitive. That was really nice.”

“It’s always a bit of a rush to watch you get off. Or to hear you, in this case.”

“I think I’ve gotten over being so suspicious about it, wondering why I cum so hard, and so frequently. I’ve told myself that it’s a gift, and that I shouldn’t be questioning its suitability. I should just enjoy it. So that’s what I’m trying to do.”

“That sounds like the right thing. We get so little pleasure in this world, you should hold onto it. If it makes you happy, enjoy it.”

“I hate being so analytical sometimes, even about this. You make me feel so good, Tom, and when I cum it feels so ... I don’t know, so profound. And I wonder if that’s you causing it to happen, or if it’s just the way that I respond to orgasms. And if I were making love to someone else, would I feel the same way? Would I cum so many times?”

She caught herself, and sounded a little embarrassed when she said, “Why am I asking you? What a foolish thing to bring up now. I’m sorry, Tom, I shouldn’t have said that.”

“I can’t say I’m happy to have you thinking about that, Karen, but it’s who you are. You can’t stop trying to find out the ‘why’ of things, even something like this. Since you asked, my guess, without the benefit of any data whatsoever, is that it’s a kind of resonance loop, a feedback mechanism, and the strength and frequency of our orgasms depends on the people we’re with. I suspect it would be different with someone other than me, either better or worse.”

“I don’t think it could get any better, so there’s a data point.”

“I’ll be sure to note it in the lab journal when we’re finished.”

“A scientist’s work is never done, so why don’t you lie back and let me perform a few experiments on you?” She pushed me onto my back and crawled down between my legs and took my dick in one hand, as if to make sure it was suitable for the task ahead.

Uh-oh, I’d better take care of this quick, or she’s going to get an unexpected surprise. I set my ejaculation filter just as she extended her tongue and licked it from bottom to top. Then she did it again, just to tease. With my dick in her hand, she licked the sensitive area just underneath the head of my dick with the tip of her tongue. She could read the results on my face, so she knew the effect it was having.

She liked getting feedback, I knew, so I inspired her with some well-placed moans and other encouragements. They seemed to work, because she was going at it a little harder. She seemed to be focusing on the licking, which was very nice, but I loved the feeling of her lips around my cock, so I channeled a desire to have something in her mouth, and programmed a sense of increasing pleasure and satisfaction as more of my dick was inside it.

It took a few moments for her mind to process and translate the metaphor. She stopped licking and dropped her lips over the head of my dick, moving up and down just a half an inch. “Ah, fuck, yeah, baby, that’s so nice.”

It really was. The best part of having discovered this ejaculation filter was that I could get right to that exquisitely erotic point just before orgasm and hold it there for a long time. And that’s what I was feeling now, that sense of teetering on the precipice of orgasm, but never quite falling off. It was glorious.

And she was feeling some unexpected fulfillment when the tip of my dick was in her mouth. She was pleased and surprised that it felt so good to her, so she pushed down a little more, pressing her lips tightly against the shaft, and getting a rush from doing so. “Jesus, Karen, that’s amazing, that’s so good. Use a little tongue, too.”

Oh, shit. That’s really nice. She was getting a little pulse each time she dropped onto my dick, so she went a little deeper. And it felt good to her, so she held it there for a moment, just that amazing tongue moving back and forth, while she savored the feeling of pleasure.

She pulled off and looked at me while she caught her breath and stroked my cock gently. Then she wrapped her lips around it again and dropped down onto the shaft, a little deeper this time. She bobbed up and down, and each time she went down she got that little pulse.

I peeked into her epicenter at the “pleasure meter” and was surprised to find it so high, in the seventies. I didn’t recall setting her pleasure level so high. Unless it wasn’t all me controlling the pleasure.

She pulled off again, and stroked it some more while she caught her breath. She was breathing a little faster, and her eyes looked more intent.

“That feels so fucking wonderful, baby, when you slide your lips down my dick, it’s just perfect.”

“Tell me how this feels, then.”

She dropped down onto my dick again and slid slowly down until it just touched the back of her throat, then closed her lips tight around it, her tongue dancing everywhere.

“Oh, fuck, oh, Jesus, Karen, yes, like that.”

It felt incredible. I would have cum twice already if I hadn’t had the filter set. I checked into her epicenter and was amazed to find her meter creeping into the nineties. I didn’t quite understand this, because I hadn’t programmed this to bring her to orgasm when she sucked my dick, but she appeared to be right on the edge of it.

I wasn’t sure how she’d respond to this, but I wanted to try something. I reached down with both my hands and grabbed her head. “That feels so fucking good, baby, I’ve got to fuck your mouth.” I thrust my hips up, forcing my cock into her mouth, not much, just an inch or less. It was more symbolic, putting me in control rather than her.

And as I looked at her meter, I was stunned to see it pushing toward the max. She was either getting off on the control, or was giving in to the rising pleasure of my dick in her mouth. I wasn’t sure which. But I kept fucking her mouth, talking to her, telling her how good it felt, how sexy she was, watching her meter rise until it pinned.

And when it pinned, I felt her go off, making sounds in her throat, grabbing my thighs tight. And I felt the connection again, where I was suddenly inside her head, sharing her orgasm, having it flow through me.

I took my hands off her head so she could pull off and get some air. She was gasping, and not just from lack of oxygen. Her orgasm was winding down.

“God damn, Karen, that was amazing, it felt so good, I was right on the edge of cumming. But I think I felt you cum. Did you?”

She nodded, not quite ready or able to speak. She wiggled her way up next to me and lay face down, throwing one arm over me. She was quiet for a minute.

“I said I wasn’t going to question this, but I am continually surprised at the intensity of what I feel. Stuff that shouldn’t get me off gets me off. I’ve given blowjobs before, even to other guys - before I met you, I mean -- and not once did I ever cum while doing it. But with you ... Tom, how did you know I was cumming too?”