Page 13 of In Love With a Master (Interview With a Master 2)

re have been quite a lot of women in my life, Leticia, and each one – no matter how fleeting the affair – has taught me something about sex and sensuality.”

Leticia looked reflective and her mood became broody. I watched her in the silence, sensing her mind carrying her away to places of self-doubt and insecurity.

“The biggest difference between men and women is the origin of our sexual urge,” I said so that Leticia was forced to break out of her melancholy and snatch her notebook back up.

“For men an orgasm is a relief,” I said, and then decided to explain. “Imagine an ache – some kind of a pain that never quite goes away. That’s what the sexual urge is in most men – it is something that lingers in the back of our mind almost constantly, so that when a man has an orgasm, he experiences temporary relief from the urge. But it’s only temporary. Eventually, that same ache will come back. For women, an orgasm is a release. The sexual urge in a woman generally starts from much deeper in their subconscious. Arousal is a longer, slower process like starting a fire. For a woman, the flame of her desire needs to be nurtured patiently until it reaches the point where it becomes conscious and instinctive. But even then a clumsy man can douse the flames in an instant. It’s not like the urge in men. For a woman, desire is created and once released as an orgasm, the spark must be reignited. Men are not so complex. For us there is always a flicker of arousal that can never quite be extinguished.”

Leticia scrambled to keep up. She worked, bent over her notebook, for several more moments and then finished with a flourish. She sat back on the sofa and sighed as though she were exhausted.

“Did I wear you out?”

Leticia smiled. She flicked back through several pages of her notebook, each one filled with large, looped handwriting, pausing occasionally to reread a phrase. Finally, she looked back up at me, her expression a compound of satisfaction and surprise. “You never cease to amaze me, Jonah. Listening to you… and re-reading what you just said – well it’s fascinating. You may not think what you know about women is special or unique, but I can tell you on behalf of thousands of others just like me, it really is. I doubt that there will be a woman reading these articles who will not feel the urge to cut something out and show it to their man. A lot of what you say is incredibly insightful.”

I shrugged. “Leticia, I am not revealing any great mystery. Half of the world’s population is female. This knowledge I have gained about women, sex and sensuality is there for every man to understand. He just has to ask the woman he is with and then pay attention. Every man who cares enough to want to please his partner as much as himself can learn all I have learned.”

Leticia didn’t look convinced. Her face became sour. “But that’s the problem, isn’t it, Jonah? Most men don’t want to learn how to arouse a woman. Most men want to know how to get a woman in to bed – not what to do once they are there. The world is full of guys with pickup lines and good-looking men who dress well in the hope of attracting a woman’s attention. All these guys seem to focus on is learning how to impress a girl so she will go home with them. And then they’ve got nothing! It is like men just want to get on the field, not learn the skills of the game.”

I blinked. I stared at Leticia and narrowed my eyes. “That’s remarkably insightful,” I gave praise.

Leticia grinned shyly. “You inspire me, Jonah,” she said. “In fact, that’s the secret to the success of your first interviews. The women you reached were encouraged and compelled to look and think about their own relationships in an entirely different way. You showed women that there was no need to accept a dull, unsatisfying sex life. You gave everyone hope, but also questions we need to ask ourselves.”

I shrugged off Leticia’s compliment. “All I did was tell my story, Leticia,” I said again. “It was never my intention to do anything else.”

Leticia knew me well enough now to interpret the tone of my voice and she sat back silently with a nod of acquiescence.

A sudden thought struck me and I frowned for an instant. “Can your newspaper create graphics for this article?”

“Of course,” Leticia nodded.

I hesitated for a moment. “Very well. Then what I am about to tell you would look good with graphics of gift cards.”

Leticia frowned and looked confused. “Gift cards – you mean like gift certificates?”

“Yes,” I said. “One made out for a husband and one made out for a wife. Now write this down.”

Leticia looked bewildered but reached for her notepad with the kind of expression on her face that suggested she was following me blindly into the unknown.

“Imagine a couple – a husband and wife – and for Christmas they exchange gift certificates. Imagine those gift certificates offer the bearer one hour of sexual pleasure. Are you following me so far?” I looked up and stopped pacing.

“No… I have no idea where you’re going with this.”

I grinned. “You will in a moment,” I said and then picked up the thread of my analogy again.

“When the woman hands her husband the gift voucher, the man’s first thought is to try to calculate how many times he can be brought to orgasm within the one hour. His mind races to all types of erotic, kinky places, each one ending in his relief. But when the man gives his wife the same gift voucher with the same offer of one hour dedicated to her sexual pleasure, most women will think in very different terms. For most women, such a voucher might mean an hour of sensual massage, or maybe an hour of intimate kissing and touching. Perhaps she imagines sixty minutes of being caressed, cuddled and stroked – but rarely would the woman think in terms of an orgasm. Because it just doesn’t matter to her in the same way it does to a man. Most women, I believe, would be deeply, truly satisfied if they received an hour of sensual, erotic pleasure, whether it ended in an orgasm or not. The man, on the other hand, would be furious.”

Leticia grinned wryly. “I think you’re right,” she admitted.

I held the palm of my hand out to Leticia like I was stopping traffic and she lapsed into silence.

“When a woman and a man are in bed together, the woman generally will touch and kiss the man in exactly the manner she, herself, wishes to be touched and kissed. So the woman might trail soft kisses down the man’s throat and across his chest before sliding her lips slowly across his abdomen. The man is lying with his eyes closed, wishing the woman would hurry up and just get to his penis. But the woman is making love in the way she wants him to make love to her,” I explained carefully and hoped I wasn’t confusing Leticia. “When the man kisses and touches the woman, he does so in the way he, himself, wants to be kissed and touched. That is why the guy generally thrusts his tongue into the woman’s mouth and then, a moment later, reaches between her legs – because subconsciously that’s exactly how he, himself, wishes the woman would act to arouse him.”

I felt suddenly tired. I didn’t know the time, but I knew I had been talking for several hours. I went across to the apartment window and leaned on the sill, staring through the glass and down into the guts of the city. The sun had traversed the sky so that warm afternoon light washed over me. I felt the weariness in my body and in my mind like a creeping fatigue.

I heard Leticia behind me – heard the sounds of her coming off the sofa, coming towards me. I felt her hand on my shoulder and her body close behind me.

“Wow,” she said softly. “Jonah, you have given me more than enough for the main article. I just know the editor is going to be thrilled when I get this article written and delivered.”

I nodded, and turned slowly away from the window.

“Thank you,” she said and then she tilted her head as though struck by a sudden realization. “That word kind of sums up our relationship, don’t you think?” she mused. “It seems that ever since I met you, Jonah Noble, I’ve done nothing but thank you for your help.”

I shrugged. “Think nothing of it.”

Leticia shook her head. “But I do, Jonah. I feel like whatever relationship we hav

e has always been so very one-sided.” She made to leave the room, but stopped suddenly, and as she did so her voice dropped to a whisper. She arched her back and pushed her lower body towards me. At the same time she lifted her face and looked directly into my eyes. “I think it is about time I started to repay you.”

I said nothing. Leticia’s hand lingered on my shoulder for a moment and then slowly slid down until it was pressed against my chest and she could feel my heart beating through the cotton of my shirt. Her eyes were hooded and slanted with a heart-stopping sensuality, her smile secretive. She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue, and her breathing became quicker. Then turned on her heel and sauntered towards the bedroom, exaggerating the roll of her bottom. I watched the seductive way her hips moved. In the hallway she stopped for a moment and looked back over her shoulder invitingly at me. “Come on,” her voice was a tinkling flirt of huskiness. “I think that’s enough theory for one day. I’m in the mood for something much more practical.”

Chapter 11.

I followed Leticia into her bedroom and paused in the doorway. Late afternoon sunlight was streaming into the room. Leticia went to the big window and drew the blinds, then turned slowly back to face me and her expression became coquettish. She clasped her hands behind her and leaned her back against the bedroom wall so that her hips thrust forward and her breasts pushed out. She hooded her eyes but the flirtatious smile on her lips began to falter.

“I promised I would submit to you in the bedroom, Jonah,” she said softly. “But I don’t really know what that means. I don’t know what you are going to expect of me, or even if I am going to be able to satisfy you.”

I said nothing. I moved into the room and stood silently at the foot of the bed. I could see anxiety spreading across Leticia’s face as the silence drew out. Finally, she said softly, “What do you want me to do?”

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