Chapter 15

My suspicions were correct. Nina had been just a little too innocent in her inquiries about what time Tracy left for her appointment. At 8:50 the next morning, less than ten minutes after the ambulance carted my sister away with Mom and Dad following in the car, the phone rang.

"Care for a visitor?" Nina asked me playfully.

"I don't know," I responded, "I had plans."

"Plans?"

"Yep," I answered firmly. "I need to go over my stock certificates and calculate my net worth. Also, Sesame Street starts in ten minutes."

"I love Sesame Street," she told me.

"I'm sure you do," I replied. "But watching Sesame Street is meant to be a transcendental, solitary experience, wouldn't you agree?"

"I would," she chuckled. "But do you think that maybe just this once you could make an exception?"

I sighed, exaggerating the sound. "I suppose."

"See you in ten minutes," she told me.

I smiled as I hung up the phone, feeling warm inside as I contemplated the prospect of Nina and an empty house. Usually on workdays I didn't shower until about 11:00. But something had told me that an earlier shower might be a good idea on that day. I was already squeaky clean and dressed in shorts and a tank top.

When the doorbell rang exactly ten minutes later my warmth kicked up a few notches as I saw her standing there. She was dressed in a light yellow summer dress that came down to just above her knees. Her legs were bare. It was readily apparent by the way her small breasts jiggled beneath the dress that she was not wearing a bra. Her face was made up lightly and her brown hair was loose and flowing over her shoulders. Her eyes were twinkling as she stepped into my arms, giving me a soft, very erotic kiss on the lips.

"Mmmm," I said, letting my hand slide slowly across her chest, confirming the suspicion I had about her brassiere.

She slapped at my hand. "I didn't tell you you could do that," she teased.

"I think we've gotten to the point," I teased back, "where they are now possessions of mine and I can touch them whenever I want to."

"Is that so?" she giggled, breaking free of my embrace and walking inside. I had a Rolling Stones album playing softly on the turntable and the voice of Mick Jagger was telling us about how we should have sympathy for the Devil.

"Yes," I said, admiring her legs, the way they moved beneath the hem of her dress. They were tanned and toned from our frequent excursions outside and very pretty to behold. "Did your mother see how you were dressed when you left?"

"Are you kidding?" she asked, sitting on the sofa. The hem of her dress rode up considerably. She made no effort to push it back down. "I had a bra on when I left the house," she smiled seductively, "but it was really uncomfortable, you know. So I just left it in the car." She patted the sofa next to her.

I sat down, letting my fingertips touch her exposed thigh. "If I didn't know better," I said, "I'd swear you have evil intentions."

"Me?" she asked. "I'm young and innocent."

"Uh huh. Did you leave anything else in the car?" I asked hopefully.

"No," she said indignantly. "I did not leave my panties in the car if that's what you were implying. What kind of girl do you think I am?"

"Bummer."

She leaned over and kissed me softly on the ear. She whispered, "I didn't leave them in the car because I seem to have forgotten to put any on this morning. How absent-minded of me."

My penis, which had been semi-erect from the moment I realized she had no bra on, suddenly stiffened to a diamond cutter. Realization struck me. With it, sexual excitement and doubt. She was completely naked under her dress! She hadn't come over here to merely fool around a little. She had an agenda. Were things moving too fast?

"Nina?" I said, trying to concentrate, to think this through as she ran her tongue up and down my neck, leaving wet trails of saliva. Concentration was difficult. Nina, despite her inexperience, had learned volumes about the art of pleasuring my flesh with her tongue.

"Let's go upstairs," she whispered to me. "Let's enjoy our time alone together. We don't have much time before you have to go to work."

I gulped. "But what about... you know... uh... protection?" I asked her. "I don't have any... uh... condoms." Actually I did. There was still a small stash of them in my Bible along with a joint that Mike had given me at some point. But I didn't want Nina to know that because I wasn't sure how she would react.

Her hand slid down my chest, coming to rest on the bulge at the front of my shorts. It began to twist slowly back and forth, putting delicious pressure on me. "You don't need any condoms," she said, still whispering in my ear, letting me feel her breath on me. "I'm on the pill."

The pill? I turned my head sharply at her. "You're what?"

A smile, a very wicked one came to her face. "I went to the family planning clinic way back in January, after the first time we made out. I knew back then that we would eventually work our way to this point. They give the pill to minors you know, without telling their parents."

I was speechless as I stared at her. She seemed to be enjoying the reaction she was giving me.

"You remember the pimples?" she asked. "The sore boobs? That's why I had those problems. It takes a little while to get used to the hormones in the pill. But I wanted it to be safe when we finally made love. I wanted it to be perfect. And today is perfect. We have the time, we have the place."

"Wow," I finally muttered. "You never fail to surprise me."

"And hopefully I never will," she said with a smile.

"But are you sure you're ready for..."

"Oh for Christ's sake, Bill!" she shouted, exasperated. "Why do you treat me like a child sometimes? I'm older than you are. I'm more than ready. I'm more than willing. I've been ready for a long, long time. Do you remember the day you first asked me to come over to your house to study?"

I looked at her, confused. "You mean, the very first time? Back in eleventh grade?"

"Yes," she said. "It was the first day of eleventh grade and you asked me to come to your place and study." She gave me a shrewd look. "I knew what it meant when you asked a girl over to study. I knew the kind of studying that went on at your house. We've already been over that point, right?"

"Uh... yes," I said slowly.

"And you'll recall that I said I would come over. I thought you were asking me over to study with you. And I said yes. I wanted to study, wanted it bad." She laughed, shaking her head. "Of course, the joke turned out to be on me when it became clear a few minutes later that you just wanted to study with me. To really study."

"I... uh... well," I stammered, "back then I was still..."

"Hush," she told me, leaning in to give me a kiss on the mouth. "That's the past and the past is forgiven. My point is that I've been ready to feel you inside of me since then. The reasons I want to feel it have changed, and changed for the better, but I still want it. I want it today. I want it now. So quit trying to be gentle and considerate. Quit trying to protect fragile little Nina from the evil world. Show me the evil world, Bill. Take me upstairs and fuck me. Right now!"

She stood, pulling on my hand, beckoning me to rise from the couch. I got to my feet obediently, still shocked but also terribly turned-on by what she was saying. She began to lead me to my room.

As we mounted the staircase she turned to me and said, "But first, you've just got to show me what the vacuum cleaner treatment is all about."

"That can be arranged," I told her.

We went to my room, which was spotless and neat, the bed neatly made, all of the rock music posters and other teenage memorabilia long-since removed from the walls and replaced by tasteful but cheap paintings and photographs that I'd acquired here and there since my recycling. I paused long enough to flip on my stereo and quickly tune it from the rock station it usually was set on to a college classical music station. Mozart was playing and I thought it fitting for the occasion. We turned and looked at each other.

"Love me," Nina said softly and I stepped into her arms.

We kissed standing up, her arms dropping down to my ass, feeling the cheeks through my shorts while my hands slid slowly down the back of her dress until I encountered her bare thighs. I stroked the skin softly for a moment, relishing the feminine feel of her legs, and then I began to slide them upwards, under the hem of her dress.

She had not been lying when she'd told me she had no panties on. My hands slid up her legs until they were moving across the smooth skin of her naked buttocks. I squeezed gently, pulling her body tighter into mine, caressing her, letting my fingertips dig lightly into her flesh. Her breathing quickened as she felt me touching her intimately. Her own hands slid upwards, under the back of my shirt.

"Take it off me," she commanded. "Make me naked."

I nodded, speechless and backed up a step. I moved my fingers from her rear and grasped the hem of her dress, lifting upward. She raised her arms to assist me. A quick pull upward and it was over. The dress was dropped indifferently to the floor at our feet and Nina stood naked before me.

I will always remember that moment, no matter how long I live, no matter how many lives I inhabit. The first moment my eyes feasted upon the sight of Nina in the flesh, in the bright daylight. I had undressed many a girl before, had looked at many a naked female form, but never had it been so sweet, so anticipated, so fulfilling. She was beautiful, all I ever wanted, her treasures revealed completely at last. I realized that I'd been waiting a long, long time for this experience and I savored it.

Nina's body was the type that looks its most alluring unclothed. Her bra and her pants and her shirt tended to hide her curves, hide the swell of her breasts, hide the smoothness of her skin. Girls like Cindy and Maggie and the many others that I'd bedded tended to look better in clothing, their charms accented by under-wire support, tight denim, tight sweaters. They made you fantasize about what they looked like naked but when you finally removed their clothing you would always find that reality was not quite as good as the fantasy. Their boobs would sag, their stomach would have a pooch to it. But Nina's body was the exact opposite. Freed of restraint, her attributes were shining. Her stomach was smooth as silk, without a line marring it anywhere. Her breasts stood proudly revealed, their small size guaranteeing not a millimeter of sag. Her lower curves were starkly outlined, making a distinct hourglass shape. And her pelvic region was without the slightest hint of bulge, her tuft of brown pubic hair accenting the pouting lips of her vagina, which were barely seen.

"Nina," I said, in awe. "You are truly beautiful."

A shy smile from her. She looked as if she wanted to cover herself with her arms and hands, wanted to hide what I so desired from my eyes, but was restraining herself. "Thank you, Bill," she said quietly. "I'm all yours."

I put my hands to her shoulders and slowly let my fingertips move downward, across her upper chest to the swell of her breasts. They glided across the nipples, swirling around each for one revolution before continuing onward, over the bottom-swell and down to her lower rib cage. I passed over the slight protuberance of her ribs, across her smooth stomach to her navel, where the fingertips touched each other for a brief second before separating and continuing south to her hips. They then slid around to her buttocks once more.

"Come over to the bed," I told her.

She gave me a nervous smile and let me propel her to my bed, lying her on her back near the middle, her head resting on my pillow. She kicked her sandals off as she lay down. She kept her legs tightly together, depriving me of a good view of her sex but this did not concern me in the least. I traced my fingertip from her knee to her crotch, letting it pass slowly through her pubic hair on its way to her breast. I eased myself down next to her, dropping my head to her right breast.

I licked from the bottom upward, working my way quickly to her pencil-eraser sized nipple, which I took into my mouth and began to gently suckle. It grew considerably in my lips and her hands came up to the back of my head. My hand began to slide up and down her thighs, right in the space where they came together. After a moment they parted slightly and I began to catch whiffs of her aroused odor in my nose.

I kissed downward, licking and sucking my way over her stomach, paying particular attention to her navel, which I plunged my tongue into, making her squeal in ticklish delight. I continued downward, kissing her lower stomach, moving more slowly now, tasting the soft skin with both my tongue and my lips.

When my chin touched the top of her pubic hair, felt it tickling me, I diverted to the side, kissing my way down her hip, to the outside of her thigh. I bathed her upper leg with my lips and tongue, moving downward to her knee. She continually tried to pull me back upward but I resisted her tugs, moving undaunted at my own pace. When I reached her knee her legs had spread of their own accord. I began moving back upward again, this time kissing the skin of her inner thigh, interjecting my body between her legs.

I could see her sex now as I homed in on it. I could see her lips pouting outward from the curtain of pubic hair, could see her clitoris, erect and waiting for me, bulging from its hood. Her lips were glistening with moisture, secreting her scent into the air. Her legs opened wider, her hands at the back of my head tugging harder, more insistently. I felt her calves and feet rubbing against my flanks.

I kissed all the way up her inner thigh, until my tongue was licking in the crease between her leg and her crotch. Her odor was powerful in my nose, making me giddy, making me want to rip off my clothes and drive ruthlessly into her body. Instead, I let the tip of my tongue lightly slide through her nest of hair and track up the side of her lip. I tasted the faint bite of her secretions on my tongue.

"Bill!" she begged, her legs opening wider, her hands pulling on my head.

I quit the teasing and went to work, sliding my tongue between her lips and licking, gathering her juices, feeling the sexy slipperiness of her inner membranes.

"Ohhhh!" she moaned at this first contact.

I licked up and down, staying away from her bulging clit and then began to slowly probe into her with my rolled up tongue, forcing my way inside. She was very sensitive to this treatment and her hips began to rise and fall the second I made contact.

"Yesss!" she groaned. "Oh yesss!"

I lapped at her more rapidly, drenching my face in her juices, feeling her thighs rubbing on my cheeks. I probed in and out as if I was fucking her with my mouth. Finally I began to lick softly around the perimeter of her clit. Her hip motion became more rapid as I did this so I began to apply soft licks to the surface of her most sensitive area. The motion began to lose conscious control. Her moans increased in volume, became higher in pitch. I looked up the length of her body, across the heaving breasts to her face, seeing that her eyes were tightly closed, her faced scrunched in the grimace of ecstasy.

I began to gently suck upon her clit, at the same time probing between her moist lips with a finger. Her clit grew in my mouth, her motions losing all semblance of control. My finger could only penetrate a short way before coming to the barrier of her maidenhead. I could have pushed past it if I'd wished but I didn't want to, knowing that another part of my body was tasked for that job and looking forward to it.

Her orgasm started slowly, building tempo as it hit her. Her hips rose and fell so fast that I had trouble maintaining the lock I had upon her. Her thighs squeezed painfully into my neck, threatening to cut off my blood supply. Her whine became increasingly high-pitched, eventually inaudible to my ears. Every muscle in her body tensed as I continued to suck on her, as her pubis continued to mash into me, wetting my face. Her fingers pulled at my hair, ripping some from my head but I barely noticed as I brought her to her peak and she began to slide back down.

I continued sucking softly until her body relaxed and a sigh escaped from her lips into the air, until her fingers relaxed and untangled from my hair. Her legs dropped from around me, coming to rest on the bed. Slowly I raised my head from her crotch, seeing her lying there with her legs spread, her vagina drooling juices onto my bedspread, her lips red and swollen, her nipples standing proud and erect, her eyes shining with lust. She was panting.

"My God," she proclaimed breathlessly. "I've never felt anything like that before."

I gave her a weak smile, wiping some of her juices away from my lips with the back of my hand. "I try," I told her.

"Get those clothes off," she ordered. "Get them off and get inside of me. Do it, Bill."

I stood quickly and ripped my shirt free from my body, tossing it across the room. It landed on the stereo. I was just reaching for the button on my shorts, ready to rip them and my underwear down, intending to be naked in less time than it took for me to take my next breath.

From downstairs the telephone began to ring. I stopped, everything stopped.

Call it ESP, call it intuition, call it whatever you want, but there are times in everyone's life when you simply know that the ringing of the telephone is a signal for important information. It could have been Mike calling to shoot the shit. It could have been Nina's mom asking her to pick up some milk on the way home from my house. It could have been one of Tracy's friends calling to check on her. It could have been a friend of one of my parents. But it was none of those things and I knew it by the time the second ring came drifting up the stairs. I simply knew it.

Nina looked at me, I at her. She knew the same thing I did, that whatever information was waiting on the other end of the call was going to mean an end to our encounter.

"Alexander Graham Bell was an asshole," I told her.

Still panting, still flushed with arousal, she asked, "Are you going to get it?"

"I don't want to."

"I think you should," she sighed in frustration. "Try to get rid of whoever it is."

"Right," I said, heading downstairs.

My precognitive flash, or whatever it was, was strengthened by the fact that by the time I made it downstairs to the phone it was well into its eighth or ninth ring. Whoever was on the other end wasn't giving up easily.

"Hello?" I asked, fighting to make my voice sound pleasant.

"Hi," said my dad. "Took you a while to get to the phone."

"Sorry," I mumbled, anything but.

"I figured if I let it ring long enough, you would answer. Sorry to uh... bother you."

"That's okay," I said, wondering if my dad somehow knew what I'd been doing. "What's up? Is Tracy okay?"

"She's fine," he assured me. "But the doctor can't complete his examination of her until he gets some recent X-rays. She was supposed to go over to the radiology clinic for that but the radiology techs are in the middle of some sort of labor dispute and they're having a sickout today. So basically, this whole morning was a waste of time and the ambulance guys are putting her back in for the trip home right now."

"Right now?" I asked, glancing upstairs.

"Right now," he confirmed. "We should be home in about fifteen minutes or so. Just thought I'd give you a little... uh... warning."

"Okay," I said, feigning nonchalance. "Too bad for Tracy. I'll see you when you get here."

"Right," he said, hanging up the phone.

I set mine back down, feeling frustration, feeling my erection wilting in my shorts, but most of all feeling relief that my dad had some foresight and common sense. He must have strongly suspected what I was up to or he never would have called. Dad was not the type to drop friendly little warnings that he was on his way home. I could only imagine the embarrassment for all concerned if they had come home while Nina and I had been engaged upstairs. Would we have heard them come in? Seriously doubtful.

Time was short so I rushed back upstairs.

"Who was it?" Nina asked, sitting up on the bed, still naked.

"My dad," I told her. "They weren't able to complete Tracy's appointment. They're on their way home right now."

"Right now?"

"They'll be here in fifteen minutes."

"Damn," she exclaimed, standing quickly up. "Stupid interruptions."

"I know," I said regretfully, looking at her naked body, knowing I'd been less than a minute away from finally entering it.

"Oh well," she shook her head sadly, as frustrated as I was, probably more so. "The best laid plans and all that." She took a good look at herself, at her dripping body. "I need to get cleaned up before they get here. I can't go home smelling like this."

"No," I said, paling as I thought about Mary Blackmore getting a whiff of the odor of sex on her daughter. Sure, she probably suspected that Nina and I were intimate with each other. That was one thing. But to have physical proof of it was quite another. "That wouldn't do, would it?"

"I need to use your shower," she said, gathering up her dress. "I'll be out before they get here. Can you go out to the car and get my bra?"

"You bet," I said. "And I probably oughtta brush my teeth too."

She giggled. "Probably oughtta," she agreed, heading for the bathroom, her dress trailing out behind her.

By the time the EMTs dragged Tracy back into the house and deposited her in her bed Nina was dried off and dressed once more, her bra properly in place. Everyone greeted her warmly, not expressing any surprise at her presence. I did notice a few knowing looks from both Tracy and my dad however. If they had anything to say, they kept it to themselves.

Nina and I chatted with Tracy for a while and then Mom and Dad, who had assumed their places before the television set. I kept up my end of the conversation but I couldn't recite a single thing we talked about. My teenaged hormones were surging through my body and I was having a difficult time keeping my erection from returning as I thought about Nina just sitting there, talking normally, while under her dress she had no panties on. My balls were aching fiercely.

We went up to my room about a half-hour before I needed to start getting ready for work. This was nothing unusual. We often spent time up there alone. Usually we did nothing more than kiss.

"Got blue balls?" Nina asked me, a smile on her face.

"In the worst way," I confirmed.

"I'm sorry," she told me, sitting on the edge of my bed once more. "I really meant to let you make love to me. I wanted it, Bill. I still do."

"I know," I told her. "It's okay."

"I guess fate just doesn't like you for some reason."

I had to laugh at what she said. Fate like me? Probably not. "No," I said, "I don't believe that fate likes me at all."

She gave me a puzzled look for a moment and then her eyes took on a little shine. "So what are you gonna do about the blue balls?" she asked. "Play with yourself after I leave?"

"Probably before your car even starts," I confirmed. "I can't go to work like this."

"Maybe I can help," she said softly. "Come over here."

"Why?" I asked suspiciously.

She reached out and grabbed the waistband of my shorts, tugging me to her so I was standing between her legs. Her mouth was right at the level of my crotch. "You ask too many questions," she told me, reaching for the button and undoing it.

"Nina," I said, feeling myself coming to full erection once again, "my parents..."

"Would never come in without knocking," she put in. She unzipped me and pushed my shorts down. Another push to my underwear and my cock was waving in her face. "Just be quiet and let me do my work."

"If you insist," I croaked as her mouth slid over me.

My mom was in the habit of leaving me a plate of whatever she'd cooked for dinner that night in the refrigerator so I could heat it up when I got home from work. That night was no exception. I was gobbling up a large bowl of her beef stew and turning a thought that I'd been having over in my mind when the doorbell rang. I heard my dad answer it and a moment later say, "He's in the kitchen." A few seconds after that, Mike came in, wearing a T-shirt from the fire department.

"What's up Mike?" I greeted, putting my thoughts on hold for the time being. "How's the new job?"

"It's cool," he answered, grabbing a seat. "I spent most of the day filling out the forms and all that crap. Then one of the captains that works days took me out in the truck to show me what I'd be doing. I'll start tomorrow on the normal route."

I offered him some of Mom's stew - there was plenty in the fridge - and he declined. While I finished up he continued to tell me about his new career. When I was done eating and had put my dishes in the sink, we went out front.

"I'm off the buds now," he told me seriously once we were out of my parent's earshot.

"You?" I asked, raising my brows. "Off the buds? What's up with that?"

He shook his head sadly. "I'll be driving a courier truck for the fire department. They have a policy. If anybody driving any vehicle gets into any accident of any kind, they have to get drug tested. It's some lawyer shit they have there. I wish I would've known about it a few weeks ago. I smoked some the other day with Maggie. Now I have to hope and pray I don't have some asshole crash into me in the next six weeks."

"Hopefully fate will be kind to you," I said, suppressing the joy I wanted to express. When I made my crack about fate I hadn't even been worried about it. Mike had already beaten fate. He had been forced to choose between marijuana and a career and he had chosen the career with hardly a second thought. Remarkable when you consider what had happened to him in his previous timeline, when he'd continued to smoke pot knowing that he would eventually be drug-tested and caught. He just hadn't cared. Now, at eighteen, he was much more mature than "the other Mike", as Tracy would have put it, ever was or ever would be. "Are you gonna miss it much?" I asked him.

"Oh yeah," he admitted, nodding. "There's nothing like getting stoned. Well, almost nothing. But I'll live. I hope Maggie understands. She likes to smoke a little bit with me. But I don't think it'll bother her that I quit. And the minute I make captain and don't have to drive anything anymore, I'm gonna go score me a fuckin' ounce and smoke it all in one night."

I grinned. "Be sure and invite me over," I told him. "How's it going with you and Maggie anyway?"

"It's goin' great," he assured me. "If she wasn't at work right now I'd be over there instead of bullshittin' with you." He grinned lasciviously. "I'm tellin' you, Bill, that chick really knows how to fuck."

"What?" I asked, surprised at his words although I really shouldn't have been.

He nodded knowingly. "And she can suck dick like you wouldn't believe too. The other night she finally gave it up for the first time. Goddamn she was hot. We started out in her living room. We were watching some TV and then we started kissing a little. She let me feel her tits - she has nice tits - and then she unbuttoned my..."

"Mike," I interrupted.

"What?" he asked, looking confused, wondering why I was intruding upon his sex story.

"Have you told anybody else about this?" I asked him.

"About fucking Maggie?" he asked. "No, you're the first. Why?"

I shook my head. "Don't take what I'm telling you the wrong way," I said. "I'm telling you this in friendship and to help you, just like when I told you about the Air Force recruiter, remember?"

"Yeah, but... what are you talking about?"

"Don't tell people about what you do with Maggie," I advised sternly. "Don't tell anybody a damn thing. Not even me. Not even if they ask. Keep it to yourself. I know it's hard to do, I know that a guy's instinct is to share his conquests with everyone, to let other guys know he's a man. But it's a bad idea. A very bad idea."

He looked at me strangely. I could see the old immature hostility at being contradicted wanting to come forth. "I'm just telling you," he said. "Maggie doesn't know. And she wouldn't care anyway."

"Wrong." I said. "Now I don't know Maggie as well as you do, but I know women pretty well. And I know guys pretty well. If you tell me, you'll tell others. But even if you don't, you can't even trust me. Suppose I passed on what you said to Tracy. Tracy might run into Cindy, who is her friend. Cindy is also a friend of Maggie's. Suppose Maggie hears from Cindy exact quotes from what you just told me. She wouldn't be very happy. Her unhappiness will increase with each person that the story passed through before it got back to her. It really is a small world and if you are in the habit of blabbing your exploits to people, word will get around and get back to her. Women will break up with you in an instant if they find out you're telling people about what you do with them in bed. Worse than that, any other woman that the story has passed through will not have anything to do with you because they know you'll tell everyone. Are you following me?"