I reached out my hand to grab hold of hers, which hung limply beside her calf. She gripped tightly and turned to look at me from behind her fringe with huge blue eyes.
‘Pete and I have been going out for eight months and we’ve kissed and everything but we’ve never slept together,’ she explained, sensing I needed to hear the story. ‘I can’t keep telling him that I don’t feel ready. But the trouble is that I’m embarrassed to let him know I’ve never had sex. At all.’
Louise’s hold had lightened as she spoke as if it was somehow a relief to tell someone this stuff. And I could see why. I nodded back at her in an attempt to reassure her.
‘And the longer you leave it, the harder it becomes to let him know?’
She nuzzled her kneecaps in silence, and then she addressed them.
‘It’s my friends too. They all did it ages ago, and I’m twenty-two and by now…’
Louise’s words petered out but I knew exactly where she was coming from. Because everyone was ‘at it’ these days, weren’t they? In the papers and celeb mags and on telly. So, if you still hadn’t got over that hurdle you had to ask yourself what was keeping you. Let alone find the words to begin to try and explain it to someone you cared about.
God, I’d been a late starter myself as far as my group of mates were concerned. When I was seventeen, I’d lost my virginity at a high-school party to an older girl I’d hardly known, just to get it out of the way. Back then I’d been as shy about it as Louise was now. But the older girl had been good for me, the experience a positive one. And I’d sure made up for lost time since.
‘But you’ve done something about it. That’s why you called me, isn’t it?’ I smiled across at her. ‘You’ve got nothing to worry about, Louise,’ I half-whispered. ‘I’m going to take care of you.’
That seemed to do the trick and unlock any fear Louise might have had. She unfurled her long legs out beyond the sofa’s edge and sat up. She took my hand and reached towards me and kissed me with a boldness I wasn’t expecting. She was signalling that she was only a complete novice when it came to the sex itself. Or at least that was the impression she was trying to give.
It was to be my job then to be the practice run, the stabilisers on the bicycle. Or that was at least how I’d decided to see myself. And if there were other reluctant virgins after Louise, then I’d treat those girls just as well—and trust that their guys would enjoy the change in them too.
God, I should charge the boyfriends commission!
I stood up and Louise followed my cue. Hers was a studio flat and she’d used the back of her sofa to create the boundary between her bed space and her ‘living room’. I took her hand and led her round the furniture and sat her down at the end of her bed.
‘I’m going to undo your blouse. I’m going to take it real slow,’ I reassured her. My fingers reached for her top button and I sensed Louise’s whole body stiffen beside me. I mentally pursed my lips and wondered what other way might help ease her into the action.
‘I tell you what, Louise, I’ll take your hand in mine and you lead me through it,’ I suggested.
It was a gamble—spelling every action out loud might deaden our time together, but at the same time it was important to let on where I might be heading with things. I didn’t want to shock her into going no further. Hopefully we’d get to a point where the lovemaking gained its own momentum without the need for words.
It became almost a game, Louise undressing herself beneath my hand. And as she reached some level of confidence, she began to undo the buttons of my own shirt. While she was engrossed in that, I removed my hand from hers and got rid of my jeans. Her hands and eyes were now exploring my chest, and I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her down onto the bed with me. I held her to me and softly stroked her belly.
‘If at any time you think I’m taking things too fast or want me to stop, you just let me know, okay?’
I bent my head towards her and kissed her full on the lips and her mouth opened for me. I felt her whole body relax.
I pulled away. For a split second a flush of disappointment swept across her face.
‘You were all right with that? You’re doing fine, Louise. I’ve just got to get myself ready.’
She lay there patiently while I removed my boxers and sorted out the protection. Being responsible for both my own and my client’s sake was all part of the job. I stocked up on the condoms at my monthly check-ups at the sex workers’ clinic. And I’d made damn sure I stuck to those ever since Day One with Jenny. If Louise was telling the truth about her inexperience—and I had no reason to believe she wasn’t—then I wasn’t expecting to catch anything. But I had no way of knowing if she was on the pill.
I was all geared up. And then Louise’s hand pushed flat up against my chest like a Stop! sign. She looked deeply worried.
‘Just a little while longer,’ she murmured.
‘No worries.’
Louise bit her lip. I knew time was ticking away. She would be paying me and the agency £250 for the two-hour session and I was determined to make every minute count for her. It wouldn’t be just about the sex but the level of tenderness too. ‘You never forget your first time’ went the saying, and I was damned sure that she wouldn’t do—and for all the right reasons. This time together was meant to be special.
I nibbled Louise’s earlobe, then flickered my tongue in the dip where her jaw met her neck and traced a line of kisses from there down to her cleavage. She stretched back in pleasure. As I nestled between her breasts, I swept one hand over her midriff ’s smooth skin to the far side of her lithe frame so I had her waist between my fingertips. Her body arched up to meet me.
As I entered her, she let out a rasp of air between her teeth, then sank back with a pained relief. It was a tense moment for me too, hoping that the sexual experience I was giving her overrode any of the inevitable soreness she’d feel. That it’d be more than just her ticking off a To Do list. That was where the holding and the tenderness came in. So she could look back and see that in spite of any hurt I might have caused her when I took her virginity, there had been pleasure in the mix too.
Louise closed her eyes, then opened them again and looked up at me looking down at her. There was a brightness in her gaze.
My mind flipped to Pete on the sidelines somewhere. If only he knew what his other half was up to. An image of bike stabilisers flickered through my mind, and I mentally gave Pete a tilt of the head.
Technically, mate, I suppose this doesn’t really count.
My hands were full of Louise’s tits. I bent towards her upturned face and kissed her lips again.
‘You feeling better now?’
Louise’s face beamed. ‘Very much so, thanks.’
‘No need to thank me. I enjoyed myself. You’ve got nothing to worry about when you next see Pete. You’re fine.’
Although Pete wasn’t in the room with us, it was important to acknowledge that this was all for his benefit.
Louise wrapped an arm around my neck and pulled my lips to hers, and I sank my tongue into her mouth. We corkscrewed around each other on the bed.
Pete’s going to have a rare old time of it.
When we came up for air again, she was splayed across the mattress, her eyes pierced with raw longing for me. Time, however, was running low.
Oh, all right then, one more for the road. A first-timer freebie to get her hooked.