It had not been a good week.

I had spent five days back east in my company's Charlotte office cooped up in a windowless room with a tall, gangly summer intern named Ray. I was supposed to be rolling out the new system software, but they were having hardware problems. And what do I know about hardware? Fly me all the way out to Charlotte just so I could watch some technician swapping circuit boards? So Ray and I hung around with our feet up on our little metal desks, and Ray bored me with trivia from his sophomore physics class.

I wish there had been more to talk about. I suppose discussing Ray's cosmology class could have been entertaining, had I been in a more receptive frame of mind. But I just couldn't get interested in hydrogen and gravity and mass and energy and Doppler shifts. Ray would say something I only half heard, and then he would pause, waiting for me to comment. At one point, I got tired of nodding and urging him to continue. After an awkward silence, I blurted out what was really on my mind:

"Saturday, Dawn and I had sex for the first time."

Ray laughed nervously, and he blushed as I told him how it happened. "We were just sitting on the couch in my apartment and there was nothing on TV. And I couldn't think of anything to say. So I kissed her. And before I knew it, she was in my bed with her hand in my pants, and I was tossing her panties on the floor. And you know what the weirdest thing was? Instead of enjoying the sex, I was worrying about what I needed to bring with me on this trip."

"Is she good-looking?" Ray asked.

I sighed. Some people just don't get it. "Ray, have you ever been fucking a woman when all of a sudden you realize you need to be on a plane to Charlotte in ten hours and you haven't packed yet?"

"Um, no."

"I'll tell you a secret. It was pretty lousy sex."

Ray giggled. "Even lousy sex is better than no sex."

I shook my head.

What the hell was I doing in Charlotte? Why wasn't I back home in Portland, huddled up in bed with Dawn for the second time? Or the third time? Or the fourth time?

Every night I would call Dawn from my hotel room and tell her what I had accomplished that day. Or, if I hadn't accomplished anything, I would babble about the weather. "It's sunny and hot here. Brutally hot. The engineers think they found the problem, so maybe I can get started tomorrow."

"It's hot here, too," Dawn said.

"I'll probably be home on Saturday."

"I'll pick you up at the airport."

"You don't have to do that. I'll just catch an Airporter van."

"It's OK. I want to."

She was very nice. I wondered what she thought about our distracted lovemaking the night before I left town. Had she noticed my tendency to drift? If she had, it didn't seem to bother her.

Or maybe she just hadn't noticed.

I've always had a hard time reading women. A previous girlfriend, Mary, used to assure me that she had orgasms during sex, but I could never tell. "It happened while you were inside me," Mary sometimes said.

I wondered if Dawn had had an orgasm. Her reaction was pretty much the same as Mary's, which meant I didn't have a clue. Dawn didn't say anything afterwards, and I didn't really have time to talk. I got out of bed to pack, and she fell asleep a few minutes later.

The engineers finally found the problem (a bad power supply and two marginally defective memory boards), and I finished the software installation late Friday evening. The office manager volunteered to take me out to celebrate afterwards, but I declined. I wasn't in a partying mood.

I went back to my hotel and took one final walk around the grounds. The Charlotte city lights lit up the sky, and a heavy haze settled over the town. The crescent moon looked out of focus in the soft gray sky. I couldn't see a single star. No way to observe a Doppler shift that night. I was sure Ray would have been disappointed. I wondered if Dawn could see stars back in Portland. I ached to be home.

I took the afternoon flight out the next day. I was glad to get out of Charlotte, but the flight was long and unpleasant. I had almost no leg room, and the kid in the row in front of me played with his seat back the entire flight. I was tired, my neck felt tight, and a dull headache throbbed behind my right ear.

I felt a lot better when I got off the plane and found Dawn waiting for me at the gate. She greeted me with a big smile, a nice hug, and a little kiss. During our hug, I thought I could tell she wasn't wearing a bra. Was that a present for me? Or was it just because of the heat? We walked hand-in-hand out of the terminal, making small talk about the heat wave. She looked good. A little disheveled, but happy and alert. I was glad I didn't have to catch the Airporter.

Dawn drove me back to my apartment. She was one of those people who like to talk and drive at the same time. She chattered aimlessly about her job and the heat, but mostly about the heat.

"Do you have air conditioning in your apartment?" she asked.

"I'm afraid not."

"Uh-oh."

She was right. Inside my room it was hot and stuffy. I invited her in and offered her a glass of ice water. She sat on the couch and sipped while I went around opening all the windows. It was hot enough outside where I doubted the windows would make much difference, but the sun was just setting, and I hoped it would cool off soon.

I propped open the balcony door. Dawn was just sitting there, a glass in her hand, looking at me. My shirt felt like it was sticking to my chest.

"How are you doing?" I asked.

"Fine."

"I'm going to go change my shirt, OK?"

"OK."

I left Dawn and went back to the bedroom, and I took off my shirt. It felt good to have it off, and I immediately felt a little less hot. I thought about Dawn in the next room, and whether I should change my slacks and shoes. Was she staying? I was glad she was there, but I wasn't sure I liked her being around when I hadn't had time to wash up. I did not feel especially fresh. I put my hand under my arm and, sure enough, I felt pretty sweaty under there. Ugh.

I stood and thought for a minute, my shirt in my hand. And then she knocked on the door.

"Can I come in?" she said, her voice muffled.

I cracked open the door and she peeked through the opening.

"Hi," she said, "do you mind?"

"No, I don't mind." I opened the door wide. "Come on in."

She stepped into the bedroom. "It's hot out there," she said.

"It's not much better in here."

"But it's nicer in here. I can talk to you."

"I was going to change my clothes."

She grinned. She slowly walked up close and placed her hand on my bare chest. She leaned even closer and we kissed. "Cool!" she said.

"You want to watch me change clothes?"

She sat down on the bed, grinning widely. "Uh huh!" she nodded.

I thought she was expecting some silly little dance routine, but I wasn't up for it. It was just too hot. "I'm sorry, you don't get a show."

"I didn't ask for a show. I just want to watch."

I shrugged. Although it was a little unnerving to have her sitting there watching, I figured I could handle it. I unzipped my slacks and stepped out of them. All I had on were my boxer shorts. I hung my pants on a wooden hanger.

"You look really great," she said.

"Maybe you should, um, return the favor?" I thought of Dawn naked. Her breasts and legs and butt and pussy. I began to get erect. The bedsprings squeaked a little as she leaned forward and stared right at my growing bulge. "Miss me a little?" she said, and she giggled.

I took her hands and urged her up off the bed. I pulled her against me, hugging her. Her shirt felt scratchy on my chest, and I pressed my building erection against her belly. "Come on," I said, "you too."

With a bright smile, she dropped down on the bed and flipped off her shoes and quickly kicked off her shorts. She lay down on her side and propped her head up on her hand. I loved the flow of her hip, and the way it curved into the smooth line of her leg. She wore purple panties. "Tell me about your trip," she said.

"I like these," I said, nodding towards her underwear. "Purple is my favorite color."

She put her hand on her hip, and I longed to be touching her there. "They are burgundy, not purple," she said.

"Same thing, isn't it?" I took a deep breath and pushed my boxers down. My penis stood at full attention. Dawn glanced down, her eyes shimmering. I crawled up into bed, my erection wagging back and forth, and I settled next to her.

"I like burgundy better," she said. "The word makes me think of wine." She put her hand on my bare hip and squeezed. "Come on. Tell me about your trip."

"I called you every night," I said. "You've already heard everything."

Her hand slid around to the hollow at the top of my thigh. My cock jerked, and I wished she would touch it. But "I want to hear it again," she said.

I looked into her gray-green eyes and tried to decide if she were joking. She looked sincere, like a child waiting for a bedtime story. But why on Earth would she want to hear about my trip all over again? But I was naked and erect, and whatever the woman wants at times like this, the woman gets.

So I repeated the events of my trip. She watched my face the entire time. It was awkward at first. I felt the need to spice up the story this time, make it more interesting. Dawn smiled with every embellishment.

"Too bad about the haze last night," she said when I was finished. "You know, sailors used to figure out where they were by looking at the stars."

"Stellar navigation, right? Of course, I already knew I was in Charlotte."

She made a little clicking noise with her tongue. "I suppose."

We stared into each other's eyes, and bit of moisture welled up in her eyes. "I'm glad you're back," she said.

"I'm sorry I was gone. It wasn't the best timing in the world."

We kissed, and her hand rested on my chest. I ran my hand down to the small of her back.

"What do you think?" I said. "Do you want to make another go of it?"

"Uh huh," she nodded. Her smile curled and her eyebrows arched.

"Yeah?" I said.

"Yeah!"

We wiggled a little closer together and kissed again. We kissed, and I let my fingers draw across her ears to her neck. Her breathing accelerated. I nuzzled in closer, our legs twined, and I kissed and licked her neck, nibbled on her earlobe, sucked on the edges of her ears. Dawn groaned and she grabbed my sides. I worked my hand up under her shirt and over her breast. Her nipple hardened under my palm.

She helped me pull her T-shirt off. She looked me in the eye and grinned, biting her lower lip. Her breasts were pale in contrast to her tanned shoulders and belly. I smoothed the back of my hand across her upper chest.

I kissed down her neck and sucked on the juncture between neck and shoulder. And then I licked downward, down the soft skin of her upper chest, across her tan line onto white flesh, and down to the large, round nipple. I licked her nipple, put my mouth over it, and licked the thick, rubbery tip. It popped up a little. I gave it a light suck.

"Suck it harder," Dawn said, and she combed her fingers through my hair. I opened my mouth wide on her tit and gave it a hard suck. I made a big slurping noise. "Yesss, like that."

I grabbed her other breast and sucked hard on her nipple, nibbled it, ran my tongue around in circles over it. And then I swapped sides, working her other nipple in my mouth. It pulled up into an identical tight cone.

"You've been sunbathing," I said, running my finger along the tan line.

"Uh huh," she said, perspiration beading on her face. "I like the way the sun feels on me. I've liked it ever since I was a junior in high school."

"What happened when you were a junior in high school?"

"I lost my virginity."

"Oh."

"My boyfriend and I would get together at the pool, lie in the sun, and then go back to his parents' house and fuck in his bedroom."

I laughed. I'd never heard her cuss before. "You would fuck? Is that really what you called it?"

She smiled. "At the time, we called it making love. But we were young. Now I know we were just fucking."

"And what do you think we did last week? Did we fuck or did we make love?"

She pressed her lips together. "Hmm." She tapped her fingers against her chin. "I don't know yet."

I put my hand over her purple or wine burgundy or whatever color they were panties. Even through her panties, she felt very hot and damp. I pressed my hand hard into her crotch and kissed her. She spread her legs wide.

I worked my fingers under the waistband of her panties. She arched up against my hand, and her fingers finally wrapped around my penis. She stroked me while I slipped my fingers inside her panties and onto her soft, hairy pussy.

We kissed hard and fondled each other. I worked my middle finger right between her lips. She moaned and pumped my cock harder. I broke the kiss with a gasp. She let go of my cock and quickly stripped her panties off.

I could smell her.

I ran my hands across her hot skin. She was very warm all over. I fingered both nipples between thumbs and fingers. Dawn's face shone with sweat.

I looked down between her legs. Her knees flapped open and closed like butterfly wings. I ran my hand down her stomach and into the dark hair between her legs. My fingers parted her outer lips and were greeted by soft, slick flesh. She was drenched. I ran a finger up and down the length of her slit. When I ran up over the bulge of her clitoris, she jerked.

"Do you like that?" I asked.

"Yes," she panted.

I used two fingers, and drew them softly up and down on either side of her clit. She whimpered and bit her lower lip.

"A little softer, a little slower," she whispered.

And with two fingertips, I went a little softer and a little slower. She held her breath and her face twisted up. And then, with a sudden rush, she yelled, her eyes and mouth open wide. For a moment she breathed in quick bursts. And then she groaned. And then she relaxed. "Oh my god oh my god oh my god," she litanied.

I was hugely erect. I'd never seen anything like it. Nothing at all like Dawn coming.