Page 59 of The Lessons

You know those scenes in movies where someone chokes on their drink? Well, that happened. Jesus, that girl and her mouth. If it wasn’t a curse word, it was her bluntness.

“Uh, exactly.” I turned around, searching her face for emotion—anything that would give me a tell-tale sign of her feelings about ending our work together. But there was nothing. That is until:

“So, intercourse, and then we’re done?”

“Well, that’s generally how it?”

“Just wham, bam, thank you ma’am?” Her hands were on her hips now, and the energy between us was shifting. Boy, she was a fiery little thing today. She hadn’t even blushed once yet. I wasn’t sure where this confidence was coming from, but I liked it.

Natalie

I wondered if he could tell I was nervous. Because inside I was shaking, out of my mind with nerves. I had turned around to walk back home, not just once, but twice. Then he had the nerve to scold me for being late—ha! Lucky for me, though, sometimes this phenomenon happens when I get crazy-nervous: I get sassy. It’s happened ever since I was little, probably some sort of vestigial coping mechanism that I learned when I was a kid. When I’d get really scared, I’d start to get feisty, pretending that I was more confident than I actually was. A kind of fake-it-till-you-make-it on steroids.

“Can we get started?” I said, pulling my blouse over my head. Getting naked, I’d grown to realize, was the easy part.

Ryan cocked his head and looked at me from across the bed.

I struggled to assess his reaction in the dim lighting. Was he trying not to look at me?

“Of course. Why don’t you get in bed? I’ll be right back.”

He went into the bathroom and closed the door behind him.

Weird, I thought, as I peeled off my shorts and panties. I slid into the bed, the cool cotton sheets feeling good against my overheated skin.

I lay there for a few minutes.What the hell is he doing in there?I was almost going to get up and knock when the door opened.

Ryan stood in the doorway, the light of the bathroom illuminating a soft glow all around him. He was dressed in nothing but black boxer briefs, which hung just under his hips and tugged deliciously against the rippling muscles of his thighs. My breath hitched as my body rallied; he was quite a sight to behold—all golden, tattooed, and flawless. How was it possible for someone to look better naked than in clothes?

He walked over to the other side of the bed in silence and climbed in. The mattress sagged a bit under his weight, and I automatically turned to face him.

“Hey,” he said looking up at me in the dim light.

“Hey,” I replied, breathlessly. Omigod. Omigod. The moment was finally here. I glanced down at my chest, checking to make out if you could actually see my heart pounding.

“One more thing, Natalie. I want you to focus on the whole sexual act today, okay? Don’t focus on only getting to orgasm. What we’re doing here is a marathon, not a sprint, okay?”

I nodded, not entirely convinced.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said parting my legs.

He smiled. “Whoa, not so fast, Flash. Foreplay first, remember? We have to warm you up.”

Warm me up? Was he serious? Did he not know—? Fine. I gritted my teeth. “Whatever you say, doc.”

He took his hand, running it along my hip, over my ass. “Not a doctor yet. Although… Fun fact: did you know that the tissue that makes up the clitoris actually continues back into your body and wraps around the vaginal walls?”

I stared at him. “Did you seriously sayfun factandclitorisin the same sentence?”

“What? Too sexy?”

I laughed. “Yeah, doc. Too sexy.”

“Stop calling me doc.”

“Eh, I rather like it, doc.”

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