Chapter 2

It was the smell of bacon that woke me the second time. I think.

I opened my eyes and then blinked them a few times just to check that I was really awake. Zoe was standing in my kitchen. That's not far from the bed. It's not much of an apartment. She was wearing a pair of old-school headphones. Mine. The headphone cord swung crazily as she danced almost silently. The lower end of it was plugged into what must have been my iPod.

The iPod was tucked up against Zoe's hip. Tucked inside her skimpy white panties. And that was it. 'Phones, 'Pod, panties. God, she looked gorgeous. I just lay there and watched her for a few minutes, until she turned to look at me. I didn't hear what she said first off, as I was staring unashamedly at her breasts. She had to repeat herself.

"How do you like your eggs, lover?"

"Uh..."

"Scrambled, right?"

"Scrambled. Sounds ... you look stunning, you know that?"

"Eggs. Answer, or I put my shirt on. This blues music. Yours?"

"Scrambled. Yes. Please. God."

"I already told you, that's someone else. I wonder ... do you think he was watching? I know he loves blues."

"Watching what?"

"Oh, are you always like this in the morning?" She grinned before holding the spatula away from her naked body and thrusting her pelvis a few times, as though she was a particularly bad Elvis impersonator. "This."

"Oh, That."

"Thank you," she said, still in Elvis mode. "Thank you very much."

"You're most welcome. I just hope you enjoyed it as much as I did."

"Hmmm ... Louis, how much do you remember? We were pretty drunk."

"Well, the first time, yeah. But I still remember."

"There was a second time?"

"You gotta get that grin under control, or stop telling fibs. Didn't your mother teach you anything?"

"Oh, yeah."

"Like what, Zoe?"

"Like ... Thank you," she repeated, laughing and thrusting. "Thank you very ... Ooh, eggs." She turned away from me, but didn't stop talking. "You're staring, Louis."

"At your ass."

"I told you once." She dropped the spatula on the bench, and hooked her thumbs in the panties. A quick tug each side, and she wiggled her bare butt at me. "This is my ass."

"Oh, yeah. I haven't had enough sleep."

"No time for that now."

"Back off, lady. I'm worn out."

Zoe turned back to me with two plates in her hands. "Shove over, would you?"

We sat in bed and ate breakfast. The eggs were nice. The bacon was great. The tits were spectacular, and she knew it. All in all, it was damn near perfect ... and then she took the plates and put them on the floor before turning back to me, and climbing up to straddle my hips.

"Fucked out?"

"Pretty much," I admitted. "You're a bunny."

"You just like my tail."

"Not just."

She leaned down to kiss me carefully on the lips, and then lifted herself up before looking me in the eyes. "Listen, sweetie ... about last night..."

I should have given some thought to the implications of taking her home with me. I didn't, but I should have. Her skirt was short, and so was her breath. Our dancing was mostly a mutual invitation. On top of that we'd consumed a fair quantity of beer. Aside from the need to pee fairly soon, I was tightly focused on sex. What can I say?

"So you can't go home?"

"Uh uh."

"Ah ... want to come with me?"

"I'm holding out hope."

" ... come home with me?"

"That too."

"Is this going to get complicated?"

She looked up at me from tired eyes. Tired, but horny. "Probably."

"You up for that?"

"Probably." I got a grin that time.

"Ah, fuck it. Come on."

"You had me at fuck."

"Home, wench. Bed-warmer."

"Yeah, I heard you treat all your girls this way."

"Claire been talking?"

"She didn't need to, the noise the two of you made."

"Oh. Did we?"

"Old walls."

"Whoops."

"And old bed. I hear your place is nicer, though."

"Could be. Come on. Let's get a cab."

She kissed me in the cab. Just once. Warm, dry lips with enough tension for me to know how much she wanted me, and enough alcohol that the desperation was kept at bay. That was all it took to keep me spellbound. We held hands until we got to my apartment. I helped her up the steps, commenting that the cab driver was staring at her ass. She flipped her skirt at him, and giggled as she fell against me.

I struggled to unlock the door with Zoe touching me in as many places as possible, and eventually we more or less fell through the doorway, still laughing. I pointed to the bed, and ran off to the bathroom, unable to wait any longer.

When I returned, she was lying back on the bed, shoes off, legs bent. The skirt wasn't offering any protection from the view, and Zoe was making no attempt to hide. With a mischievous grin, she lifted her hips and slid the useless skirt to the floor. She sat up then and pulled her t-shirt over her head. Her small firm breasts were revealed as she threw the black bra across the room.

I was hauling my clothes off as quickly as I could when she lifted her hips to start on the tights, and I spoke. "Please Zoe, don't do that."

"No? Oh. I just assumed..."

"No, it's fine. It's fine, really. It's just ... could I?"

"Oh, God. I thought you were backing out."

"No. No, I wouldn't."

"Just as well, because if you don't fuck me soon I'm going to have to take care of it myself."

I teased her with my next comment, but she knew I was just kidding. I was standing naked, and my interest was patently obvious. I didn't really listen to her response, because I was busy getting to my knees at the foot of the bed. I reached up and put my hands on Zoe's hips, wasting no more time and dragging her dark tights and the white panties down and off her legs in one go.

My hands returned to her legs, and I grabbed her behind the knees and hauled her down towards me, before looking at her sparkling eyes and lowering my mouth between her unresisting legs.

Her arousal was obvious. Zoe had pubic hair that was mousy like her head. Down here it was neatly trimmed, and as I parted her knees I could see the swollen evidence. Pink and damp, with an unmistakeable odour.

She felt wonderful. That combination of horny and tiddly, relaxed but interested. My lips kissed their way up the nether version of hers. Soft warm labia parted to let my tongue explore, and I made the most of it, pressuring her gently, teasing my way slowly to her waiting clit. \

As I touched it Zoe jumped, and instinctively tried to pull away, but I wouldn't let her. I kept my tongue just a little distance away for a while, and when I tried again she sighed and then groaned, so I kept right on going.

The rhythm was building and Zoe was moving against my tongue. I was getting into it, sliding and slipping my tongue all over, returning to her clit again and again, when she suddenly sat up, and put her hands on the sides of my face.

She spoke then, in a shaky voice. "Please Louis. Please stop."

I looked up. "Huh?"

The smile was reassuring. "I'm too tired, lover. Don't do that."

"You don't like it?"

"I like it too much."

"How does that work?"

She lifted my head and kissed me briefly. "I'll give you the simple version. If you do that just one minute longer, I'm going to wrap my legs around your head, and come. Really hard."

"Oh, well..." I lowered my face again, but she pulled it back up.

"Uh uh. Let me finish. I'm going to come. I'm really close. Really. And then I'm going to fall asleep. I want you to come inside me, and that isn't going to happen with you kneeling on the floor, so could you just get your lazy ass up here..."

"Lazy?"

" ... and fuck me?"

"Your wish..."

"Just..." I stood at the foot of the bed. "Oh. God. No fucking wonder!"

"What?"

"All that noise I heard."

"That wasn't me."

"No. You just caused it. So stop fucking around, and get on top."

That was the end of the conversation. I crawled up between Zoe's legs, pausing to kiss her hard nipples, and then positioned myself as best I could.

She was wonderful. I thought it might be weird, but it was stunning. With the tip of my cock between her legs I moved slightly and she jumped again, before grabbing me and making it plain where I should be. I slid slowly down inside her, hot and tight, and very, very nice.

Buried inside her, we both jiggled a little to get in the best position, and then we started to move. Somehow we both knew exactly what the other wanted.

As predicted, it didn't last very long. We were both so aroused that every movement started a shudder, and it only took a few thrusts until I knew I couldn't hold off. I tried to tell Zoe and she shook her head.

I lifted myself almost entirely out of her, and thrust myself back, knowing it would be the last time. Zoe groaned much more loudly, and her muscles clenched around my cock. That was all I could take, and I started pulsing inside her as she shuddered around me and hissed with delight. It seemed to go on and on, our bodies pulsing with orgasm together until eventually the movements calmed a little and we came to an eventual stop.

We lay there silently for a moment and then Zoe giggled beneath me. "Get off, big boy!"

"Oh, Zoe, I already did."

"Mmhmmm ... Me too. And you know, I've come in time with you before, though never quite this close. But get off." I withdrew myself carefully from her. My cock was still hard, and Zoe looked at it. "Umm ... you finished?"

"Yeah. Yeah, it's just ... wow, you're something special, Zoe."

"Yeah, yeah. You say that to all the girls."

"Not afterwards I don't."

"You know what? You're a shameless flirt."

"I never claimed otherwise."

Zoe hauled the blankets up on the bed, and climbed under them. "Well, could you please put that away, and crawl in here behind me?"

I did exactly as she asked, and she pressed herself against me, my half-hard cock sliding between her legs. She claimed that was the best way to go to sleep, and then that's exactly what we did. Freshly fucked, very tired and a little bit drunk, we both nodded off almost instantly.

It was dark, and both quiet and still, as only the middle of the night can be. The dog from across the road had stopped barking for a change, and the stillness almost ached with the lack of wind outside. I often woke at this time of the night, and had never known why.

It was generally a comfortable wakefulness though. A chance to mull over the events of the day, or to relive the sex. A recollection that might sometimes result in a quiet stroking session if I was alone, or an attempt to wake up someone to help out if I wasn't.

Tonight though, it wasn't that. Something else ... and then I heard it.

A quiet whimpering cry. Tears and an attempt to not make any noise. I suddenly realised that Zoe wasn't beside me, and sat up in the bed. Across the floor, leaning against the wall with her arms wrapped around her legs, and her face resting on her knees, was Zoe. She was sobbing.

I climbed from the bed and quietly walked over to see what the problem might be. Somehow I realised that a joke wouldn't work this time, and instead I sat down beside her, both of us naked but not remotely sexy, and did nothing.

Every once in a while I seem to be able to instinctively do the right thing, and this time it must have worked. She slowly lifted her head from her knees, looked at me through the tears and what I could see were red eyes, and spoke.

"I'm really sorry, Louis. I didn't mean to wake you up."

"You didn't."

"Oh, I did. Stop it."

"Doesn't matter."

She looked away then, sniffed loudly, and turned back to me. "Can I tell you something?"

"I wish you would."

"I've really fucked things up."

"No. No, you haven't. Well, you might have ruined your own sleep for the night, but I think most other things we can fix."

"I don't think so, Louis. You won't even want to."

"Oh?" I took her hands in mine. "Listen, you. Friends. I didn't just drag you in here for a quick fuck. What's going on?"

"God."

I grinned then, briefly. "We had that discussion. You said that was something else." She didn't react though, so I had the sense to shut up.

A few minutes, after more sobbing and a big sniff, she turned to me again, and spoke almost calmly. "I haven't been honest with you, Louis. Friends should be honest."

"Friends," I responded quietly, "should look after each other, and do what they think is best."

"No. No, they shouldn't."

"Perhaps you could..."

"Yeah, yeah. Tell you. I know. I don't like the idea much."

"Zoe, I promise to listen quietly. I'd like to help. What is it?"

"It's about Claire."

"There's a stunning revelation."

"You promised to be quiet."

"Sorry." I put my hand on her shoulder.

"It's okay. Oh, your hand is warm."

"You cold?"