Her jaw sagged ever so slightly. She definitely hadn’t anticipated this curve ball.
“If I know these things about you, it’ll make it easier for me to please you,” Trent offered.
“But—”
“We’ll start with the easy questions. Sexual orientation?”
Josie licked her lips. He saw that boldness in her eyes again, and then he knew he had her. “Hetero.”
“Number of sexual partners?”
“Less than five.”
“But more than zero, right? You’re supposed to be the expert here.”
“More than zero, yes. And let me point out to you that number of sexual partners does not necessarily correlate with sexual expertise.”
He watched her defend herself and his body responded with a surge of heat to his groin. He should have already been one of those lovers, and why hadn’t he been? Why had she run away from him but not the others?
“Your turn.” She grabbed the questionnaire from his hand and read it. “‘What percentage of your lovers have left unsatisfied?’”
Trent shrugged and made up a number. “Lately, I’d say eighty percent.”
“Define ‘lately.’”
“Since I’ve been mature enough to tell the difference between a woman who’s faking and one who’s really satisfied.”
“I need a number.”
He made like a man ashamed to admit the truth. “Five years.”
Her brown eyes formed big Os. “And you’re just now asking for help?”
“The opportunity just now presented itself. How about you?” he asked. “How many men have you left unsatisfied?”
Trent pinned Josie with his gaze, and her eyes sparked fire. He’d trapped her right where she didn’t want to be, forced to admit she was a cock tease.
“Men I’ve gone to bed with? None.”
“You know that’s not a fair answer. Women leave men unsatisfied by not going to bed with them.”
“You want me to count the number of men I haven’t gone to bed with?” she said with a little smile, obviously enjoying the game again.
“Just the ones you left hot and bothered. But I realize that’ll be a long list to compile, so we can move on to the next question for now, and you can give me your answer at our next meeting.”
Josie narrowed her eyes at him, probably formulating a snappy comeback, but then she looked down at the questionnaire and smiled. “‘Describe your favorite sexual fantasy.’”
He snatched the questionnaire back. “That’s not the next question on the list.”
She shrugged. “It’s the next one I want to hear the answer to.”
How could he tell her that his favorite sexual fantasies all involved her? Getting her so hot she couldn’t take another moment of anticipation. Making love to her again and again, until they were both so sated they could only lie in a naked heap, resting up for the next round. Okay, so that was his adolescent fantasy. His adult ones were a bit more sophisticated. And detailed.
“Well, let’s see… Do you want the R-rated version or the X-rated one?”
He was pretty sure her breathing quickened at that moment. She crossed and uncrossed her legs. “I suppose for the sake of accuracy, the X-rated version would be preferable.”
“You’re not gonna psychoanalyze me with this, are you?”
Josie shook her head. “This is purely for the sake of our lessons.”
Trent leaned back, his chair resting against the wall and closed his eyes, picturing a favorite scenario he’d always wanted to act out with Josie. “I’m with a woman out in the woods somewhere. There’s a shallow creek, and we’re in it, playing around, splashing and stuff.”
“Is she a woman you know well, or a stranger?”
“Someone I’ve known for a long time.”
“Have you had sex with her before?”
“Maybe, maybe not. Doesn’t matter.”
“What happens after you’ve been playing in the water for a while?”
“We wrestle around, kiss, start taking each other’s clothes off. Pretty soon we’re naked.”
He glanced at Josie’s chest and an image of her, lit by moonlight in the car at Ocean Beach, came to him. Her breasts were full and spilling over the top of a frilly white lace bra. He’d barely gotten to touch her before she’d kicked him out of the car and driven off.
“What happens next?” she asked.
“She drops to her knees there in the creek and starts to give me head, really slow and seductive, driving me crazy. Then she stops, moves her mouth up my body, kissing and licking.”
He opened his eyes and caught Josie watching him like a starved animal.
“Do you kiss her back?”
“I rub my hands on her breasts, kiss and suck them. I kiss her, but she’s in control. She stops me, gives me a wicked smile, and starts the splashing again.”
“Do you splash back?”
“I try to pull her to me, but she catches me off balance and sends me sprawling back in the water. Then she takes off running, and I get up and chase her.”
“What happens when you catch her?” Josie asked, almost breathless.
Trent leaned his head back and closed his eyes again, picturing the scene that had played out in his head too many times to count. There were many variations of it, but one constant: Josie, naked, wet and willing.
“We fall down together in the creek. The water’s barely cool since it’s midsummer and steaming hot outside. Her hands are all over me. I can tell she wants me now. She’s really hot and bothered.”
“How can you tell?”
Trent opened his eyes and let his gaze travel over her. “The way she’s breathing, quick and shallow. The way she looks at me like I’m the last man on earth. The way her whole body seems tensed up, waiting for something.”
“And what happens next?” she was bold enough to ask, either ignoring or unaware that he’d just described her current state.
“I don’t give in. We’re having too much fun, and I want her to struggle for it.”
“‘It’ as in sex?”
“Yeah. I make like I’m trying to escape, and she gets this wicked grin on her face. She tells me to be a good boy, and she pulls me over to a tree on the shore. She takes a vine and ties me to the tree.”
“Are you sitting or standing?”
“Sitting on the ground, with my arms tied above my head. She climbs on my lap and rubs herself against my erection, then slides it inside of her. She’s so wet and ready, it’s all I can do to keep from coming right then.”
“Why do you hold back?”
She’d just put on her psychology cap, trying to measure what he did and didn’t know about pleasing a woman. It occurred to Trent that he could have made up a fantasy, something that illustrated his fictional ineptitude in the bedroom, but it was too late for that.
Besides, he was achieving his goal. Josie was clearly aroused by his fantasy, so now he knew he could turn her on. Pretty easily, too, it seemed.
“I want us to come at the same time. She starts riding me, slowly at first, then faster. I lick and suck her breasts, and she arches her back, moans. I can feel her getting wetter. She feels like a hot, ripe peach. I’m going insane. Her muscles start to contract around me, and then we climax in unison.”
Beads of sweat had formed on Josie’s upper lip, even though it was air-conditioner cool in his office. She pushed a strand of her hair behind one ear.
“You have a healthy imagination,” she said, staring intently at the questionnaire.
“It’s your turn. I want to hear your favorite sexual fantasy now.”
Josie slapped her black notebook shut and rose from the giant baseball glove. “I just remembered—I need to go. I’ve got a seminar starting in ten minutes.”
“No fair.” Trent stood, too, and followed her as she edged her way toward the door. “I showed you mine, now you—”
“Please fill out the rest of the questionnaire and give it to me at our f
irst lesson.”
“Only if you fill one out, too.”
She hesitated. “Okay, I will. When would you like to begin your lessons?”
“The sooner, the better. Are you free tonight?”
“T-tonight?” She exhaled slowly, then licked her lips. “Yes, I’m definitely free tonight. How about seven o’clock?”
“Seven is fine.” Trent wrote down his address and handed it to Josie. “We’ll meet at my place then.”
She turned and looked at him when she reached the office door. “Interesting setting you chose for your fantasy.”
“Hey, you said you wouldn’t psychoanalyze.”
A secretive smile spread across her lips. “Sorry, I couldn’t resist. By the way, this woman in your fantasy, is she always the same person?”
“Why? Does it matter?”
“You’ve definitely got issues with her.” Josie watched for his reaction, then turned and walked out the door.
Issues? Yeah, he had issues. If she only knew.
3
TONIGHT would be the test. If she could spend an evening with Trent without her panties melting, she could survive the next two months. Easy.
Yeah, right.
Josie glared up at the stoplight ahead and tried to ignore the man making rude hand gestures at her from the dump truck on the left. Apparently she’d made him angry, though she wasn’t quite sure how. Something having to do with merging into his lane a few blocks back when she’d been a little distracted recalling Trent’s fantasy.
Josie broke into a sweat just thinking about it again. She couldn’t help picturing herself in the creek with him every time she remembered his words.
The images had been a little rough, the language coarser than she would have preferred, but he was a guy, after all.
She’d never witnessed a man say something so intimate outside of a counseling session, and it was a good thing, too, because she’d gotten so turned on she’d been useless the rest of the day at work.
The light turned green and Josie accelerated as fast as her decrepit car would allow. She flashed the dump truck guy a victorious look as she pulled ahead of him in traffic.
Josie wanted to end her sexual drought, but the thought of ending it with Trent brought back that old shakiness, the fear she always ran away from. Okay, so she was a counselor, and she knew facing her fear would be the best way to conquer it. Probably the most fun way, too, in this case.
But how could she keep herself from freezing? How could she finally have sex with Trent after so many years of not having sex with him? And when she did give in to her urges, how could she possibly maintain any sense of professionalism or control?
She had to figure out some way to keep her sexual urges under control, so that she could remain in control. Trent was playing a game with her, she suspected, and she didn’t know yet what the game was, only that she had an agenda of her own to pursue.
What she needed was a first lesson for him that would get the ball rolling fast. Once she’d let off nearly two years of sexual steam, she could relax and not worry so much about all her problems.
For now, though, what she needed was a shower. July in San Francisco usually meant seventy-degree temperatures, but today the thermometer had shot up to ninety, and suddenly the city that didn’t need air-conditioning was a sweltering urban jungle. She’d driven home with the top down on her convertible to compensate for being hot all day at the center.
She arrived at home to find that she’d forgotten to open the windows that morning, and the inside of her apartment had turned into an oven. She hurried through the place opening windows, then headed straight for the bathroom, where she stripped off her work clothes and set the shower on lukewarm.
Perhaps a cold shower would have been more appropriate, but Josie was determined that tonight would not be a night for cold showers. She’d have her way with Trent in a matter of hours, if all went smoothly.
She shampooed her hair, then applied conditioner to leave in so her hair would be, according to the bottle, luxuriously silky for her first lesson with Trent.
Now why’d she have to go and think of him, when she barely had full control of her senses as it was, when the pulsating shower head was almost more temptation than she could handle?
She closed her eyes against the spray and tried to block out the mental images that were flooding her brain. It wasn’t working. She saw Trent with his shirt off, taut muscles straining over her. Trent with all his clothes off, positioned between her legs, his erection about to penetrate her.
The shower spray hit her sensitive breasts and, in spite of herself, she arched her back toward the painful yet pleasant sensation. Her nipples pulled into tight, hard peaks, and she grabbed a bar of soap and started lathering in an attempt to focus on the task at hand.
What she needed was a distraction. She should think about doing her taxes…or waxing her legs…or clipping Eros’s claws. But her imagination rebelled just as her hand with the bar of soap slipped between her legs.
They became Trent’s hands, rubbing, massaging, slowly coaxing her toward the release she was aching for.
She gasped and sagged back against the tiled shower wall. Trent, yes, please, I want you… The throbbing at her core grew until it filled her, then consumed her.
She removed the detachable shower head and brought it down slowly, the pulsing spray almost more than she could stand. When it hit that most sensitive part of her, she cried out, gasping, her heart racing as her pelvic muscles contracted and she found release.
She imagined Trent’s hard, wet body pressed against her there in the shower, holding her up against the wall as she caught her breath. He would hold her until she had control of her senses again. And then he would kiss her senseless until they were ready for a second round.
But then she did come to her senses, and it was only her there, alone in the shower, with the cold realization that she’d just gotten a little too friendly with her detachable shower head. She released it from a clutch hold and it fell to the shower floor with a clunk.
Josie shook herself, feeling a little light-headed from the lack of blood flow to her brain. She rinsed the conditioner from her hair and turned off the water. Stepping out to grab a towel, she saw from the bathroom clock radio that she had less than an hour to get to Trent’s house.
Less than an hour to mentally prepare herself for her new sexual destiny; less than an hour to calm her nerves enough to follow through; less than an hour to decide exactly what it meant to give a man sex lessons.
IT HADN’T OCCURRED TO Josie until she was standing in Trent’s living room how awkward these lessons could be. She was actually going to try to teach the principles of a long-lasting sexual and emotional relationship to the same guy who’d given her the nickname Josie the Tease in high school? What had she been thinking?
“You going to stand there all night in the middle of my living room, or relax and have a seat?”
“I was just wondering, um, where you’d like to get started?”
Trent’s trademark mischievous twinkle lit his blue eyes and he shrugged. “The living room floor works for me, if that’s what you prefer.”
Josie fingered her folder full of notes, only now realizing how ridiculous it was that she’d thought of using notes for tonight’s lesson. How could she expect to seduce a man when she had to refer to an outline?
Was she making a huge mistake? Her pulse quickened and she turned and eyed the door. It wasn’t too late to back out. She could find some other way to save the Lovers for Life Center.
“You’re not thinking of backing out of our agreement, are you?”
“About that…”
He rose and went to her, stood just inches away as he said, “I need your help. I’m getting tired of the bachelor scene. Someday soon it’ll be time for me to settle down, have a real relationship with a woman…start looking toward the future.”
“But—”
“I need you, Josie. I’ve got to lear
n how to please a woman in the bedroom if I’m ever going to find one that wants to stay with me.”
Now, with him so close, her body was warming up. Memories of her shower a short time ago made her cheeks burn as she looked him in the eye. He seemed so truly earnest in his need. How could she not help? Yes, she had to help him, for herself and for him and for his future lovers.
It was time to put all her theoretical knowledge about sex into practice.
She took a deep breath and smiled at Trent. “Well, of course I wasn’t thinking of backing out. I was just remembering that I forgot to fill out my questionnaire and bring it along as we’d agreed.”
“Forgot, huh?”
“Sorry.” She produced an apologetic smile. “Do you have yours ready for me?”
He nodded. “You can finish answering yours orally later.”
Oh, great.
His gaze fell to her mouth, and she took that as her cue to get started.
“Every sexual encounter,” she began, her voice a little shaky, “should begin with a kiss.”
“So you want to check out my technique?”
“Uh, yes, I think that would be prudent.”
His lips curved into a sly grin. “Isn’t that rushing things a little?”
“Well, not if we’re going to get right down to business. No, I don’t think it’s rushing.”
“But isn’t great sex based on mutual attraction and affection?”
Okay, he sort of had a point there. But Josie intended to prove that great sex needed only two willing bodies.
“It’s good to have both, but in a pinch, plain old sexual attraction will do.”
He shrugged. “You’re the expert.”
She glanced down at her feet, clad in strappy black sandals that she’d thought Trent might find sexy. The vague feeling that he was playing a game with her rose up in her chest. “I prefer to think of myself as an educator, not an expert.”
“Whatever you say.” His voice was lower now, and he’d lost the mocking grin.
“Okay, then—” she took a step closer to him, putting aside her doubts “—let’s start with a kiss.”
Pleasure for Pleasure Page 4