Stay After Class, page 12
As I walked through the streets of lower Manhattan to the gallery, I felt like I was one of those people, out and about in the city of romance and possibility. Heading toward a night with my hot professor—well, former professor-slash-possible boyfriend—was becoming a familiar ritual and he was becoming more of a fixture in my life.
Is that what was happening? Was he becoming my boyfriend?
When I got to the studio, I saw him in the lobby of the gallery in ripped jeans with a hammer in his back pocket and white T-shirt half tucked in. He made that T-shirt look so sexy I wanted to lick him. His hair was a mess and curling at the top, and he was just the right amount of sweaty. Something about his smell made me want to rub up against his body and inhale him.
“Ms. Slade, once again you have journeyed into the heartland of my life,” he said, opening the door when he spotted me. I was happy when he grabbed my hand and led me back toward the White Room with a sense of urgency. I loved the way he took control of getting us from one point to another.
“Tonight, we dance away inhibition,” he said, turning up the music playing from his iPhone speakers in the White Room. “It’s a good way to shake the week off, and get your ecstasy on.”
“I’m not much of a dancer,” I said, shy about my two left feet and curious about where the picnic was. Fortunately I ate a late lunch. “But I wouldn’t mind getting my ecstasy on.”
“When you dance to the beat of a drum you cannot go wrong.” He snapped his fingers and twirled around. “It’s so primal.”
Soulful drum music filled the air as he pulled me close. It began softly, and I loved the way his arms felt around me, and how the music moved us across the room. Swept up in the moment, it was a bit of jolt when it got louder and more intense. He pulled away and started to dance solo, following the beat, and invited me to as well.
“C’mon, Ms. Slade, let loose. Dance with me. Be the wild woman that lives inside.”
He jumped and moved and twisted and turned to the music, a look of pure joy and release on his face.
“In the Brazilian culture the women dance to bring in the Goddess and her powerful sexual energy,” he shouted over the beat of the drums. “They dance her into their loins, and let her energy course through their bodies.”
Left to my own devices, I began to move my feet up and down to the beat, and added the swing of my hips, and before I knew it I was kicking my legs, jumping up and down, and moving in large sweeps around the room. My body was alive with a rhythm I never knew I possessed. I closed my eyes and swirled, dancing loudly, as if no one was watching. I moved to a feeling of joy inside me.
I was so engaged in the moment, I didn’t realize he had slowed his movements to grab his sketch pad and was capturing my sensual release through dance.
When the music stopped, he had a basic sketch completed, capturing the lines of my body and the joyous look on my face. I looked wild and like I was dancing with no reservations. Even though I didn’t quite look like one of the models in his nude painting collection, there was vibrancy. I looked sexy, well, the person in his drawing did. He had many talents I was coming to learn, and super quick sketching was one of them.
“How did you do that so fast?” I asked, out of breath.
“I guess the creativity of the Goddess moved through me too,” he said. He put the drawing aside and changed the channel to his favorite soul station. “Now for something a little slower.”
He pulled me in and pressed himself into me. He was hard.
“Remember this?” he said, rubbing his hardness right against my groin. “Just so you know, I want nothing more than to bury it inside you and lose myself in you.”
He dropped his head to my forehead and sighed.
“Then why aren’t we doing the Horizontal Waltz tonight?” I looked up, right into his eyes.
“We are building toward greater intimacy without penetration,” he whispered, pulling me tighter into his embrace. “Can you see how being intimate in small ways can bring us closer, if we take our time?”
“Yes.”
“But of course, it doesn’t take away the burning need you feel, does it?”
“No.” It felt good to be in his arms, but I wanted more. “There is a part of me that is throbbing for you.” Sometimes it felt as if a part of me was crying for him.
“When people trust each other, there are ways to be closer without penetration,” he said. “If you remember, the last time we were in here, I gave you pleasure sans penis.”
Wetness flooded my lower parts. My body remembered.
“I want to pleasure you again, tonight,” he said. “Would that be okay?”
I looked up at him, desire in my eyes. “Yes.”
“Tonight, you are the picnic.”
“Me?”
He licked his lips. “Yes, you … take off your clothes.” It was the same command he’d given me on the phone, but it was easier then because he wasn’t in the same room.
“Like strip? Everything?” Nervousness joined excitement and spread through my tummy.
“Yes, everything.” He released me from his arms and lowered the lights. “Slowly. I want to watch you.”
Although I never thought I would have the nerve, I lifted my shirt over my head and tossed it on the floor. Then I wiggled out of my jeans. I stood in my panties and bra, hesitating.
“You’re beautiful,” he said. “So beautiful. I can’t bear the idea of any other man ever seeing you in this way. I need to protect you and keep you safe, for as long as I can.”
“I don’t want to be seen by anyone else,” I said, tears welling in my eyes. “I … I want you.”
“Do you trust me?”
“Yes.”
“Take off your bra.”
I reached behind and undid the clasp. I moved forward to let the straps fall, and felt cool air kiss my nipples.
“Take off your panties,” he said, eyes traveling up and down my body, focusing in my middle as I slipped my panties past my slim hips, and past my knees, and onto the floor, exposing myself, fully, to his eyes. I was naked.
“Thank you,” he said, walking toward me, kissing my ear, my chin, my neck. “It’s a gift to see your naked flesh in the moonlight.”
He took my face in his hands and kissed me, deeply. Again, I was on the edge of tears to be so exposed, and so close to him. But I wanted nothing more than to feel his touch.
I also wanted his flesh on mine. I moved my hands to his chest, and tried to unbutton his shirt, to even the playing field. “Couldn’t we both get naked?”
He grasped my hands in his and lifted them to his mouth. He kissed my palms. “Not yet.”
Releasing my arms, his hands traveled to my breasts, and gently held them.
“These are beautiful,” he said. “And I’d like to make them mine.”
He bent his mouth down, and kissed my right breast while molding it in his warm hand, then brought my nipple into his mouth, gently pulling it between his lips. Waves of bliss shot down from my breasts to between my legs. I was wet, bursting with desire. I wanted him so bad.
After all the attention to my right breast, he moved to the left. He kissed and toyed with it, but when he took the nipple into his mouth he gently bit, moving it softly between his teeth, licking it with his tongue, until my legs started getting wobbly and it felt like my center would explode.
His hands moved to my hips, caressing them, and touching my ass, and then he guided me a few steps backwards to the wall. It was the same spot I stood in for my maiden pose. He pulled me close for a moment, pressing my hips into his, letting me feel his erection. He then gently pressed my back against the wall.
Lowering himself to his knees, he kissed the naked flesh of my belly.
“Let me taste you,” he said. “Open your legs for me.”
“Down there?” I was taken aback.
“Yes,” he laughed, “down there.”
I looked at him, a little shy about being so vulnerable. I think he sensed my hesitation.
“I just want to pleasure you,” he said, tracing small circles on my inner thigh. “I want to open you more this way so that when I do take you you’re able to savor every bit of what I have to give.”
As I tried to get my breathing under control, I spread my legs apart, enough for him to have access.
“Put your hands on my shoulder and hold on,” he said. Soon I felt his breath close to most private parts.
The feel of his tongue was like magic. He boldly moved it through my folds, licking and tasting all of me. The pleasure was so intense my whole body trembled.
“I’m gonna fall,” I said, grabbing onto him harder. My legs felt like they were made of Jell-o.
“You’re going to fall into me, baby,” he said. “Put your leg over my shoulder.”
Thank goodness my legs were strong from swimming. I managed this aerobic move, exposing myself completely to his mouth. I had never felt so naked, or turned on. He held me by the top of my legs, yet my hips gyrated uncontrollably in the air, as if grasping for the part of him I most desired.
He continued to explore me, licking wildly, brushing over my clit. Then he gently slid inside me.
“Oh. My. God.” The words fell out of me like a mantra as I pushed myself against his face, craving the feel of him as close as I could get him. My breathing went wild. As hunger roared through me, my legs tremored and quaked, and I lost my balance. He took hold of my waist and helped me onto my knees, where he kneeled with me on the floor, holding me in his embrace.
“My beautiful Ms. Slade,” he said, holding my face in both hands. “I am going to lay you down now and make love to you even more deeply with my mouth. I just want to pleasure you. Stay open for me.”
He quickly rolled out our “picnic” blanket and helped me onto it. Once I was safely on my back, he urged my thighs farther apart with the backs of his hands and kneeled between my legs, looking into my eyes with such passion that my body ached for him. I surrendered to complete vulnerability. My whole being was open to him. He lowered himself and teased me with sweet kisses on my inner thigh. His lips on my flesh made my body burn.
“You’re beautiful here, too.” He breathed into me. “I want to make this mine.”
His tongue came in softly, slowly, and then slid deep inside, deeper than he was before. As he moved it in and out, I was filled up, pressed apart. It felt like my entire body existed in this place between my legs.
One shockwave after another roared through me and I couldn’t open myself wide enough to him. His mouth was hot on my most hidden part and his tongue sent me spinning out of control. Under his touch my hips quivered and gyrated madly, and a deep, primal groan escaped my mouth.
He used his hands to open me more and his lips found my clitoris. I spiraled upward into bliss as he sweetly licked, and gently sucked. With his mouth focused on me, deep desire took hold. Just when I thought nothing could feel any better than his mouth on me, he slid one finger inside. Then all at once, with his finger deep in me, his tongue swept over my sweet spot and I was gone.
I shattered into pieces, one shudder after another rolling through me.
When the last tremor released, he moved up from between my legs and held himself over me with his strong arms. His hardness was millimeters away from me.
“How are you feeling?” He had a glazed look in his eyes.
“Happy.” I pressed my open thighs toward the bulge in his pants and rubbed against him, and tried to pull him closer with my legs. “But when will this be mine?”
“It already is, Ms. Slade. I suspect it has been for a long time.” The look in his eyes changed from passion to warmth. He smiled.
He quickly wiped his wet mouth against his shirt, to remove some of the traces of my pleasure, but when his lips came down on mine, I could taste myself. It made me wonder what he would taste like, and if he would ever give me a chance to know.
“Remind me again why, if it’s mine,” I asked him, curling a strand of his hair on my finger, “it’s not inside me yet.”
“Because when I do that, you will never be the same. There will be no turning back.”
“And what about you?” I probed, tracing his ear with my finger. “What happens to you?”
He hesitated for a moment and sucked in his breath. For the first time he seemed vulnerable.
“I already told you I’ve fallen for you, but when we merge in that way I will probably fall so deeply, I will never, ever be the same, either,” he said, his eyes sinking into mine as his body lowered a little closer. “It will be so meaningful that it will change us both. I guess I want us both to be ready.”
This was the first time he’d admitted that claiming my virginity could change him too. Maybe his sex-blocking was also a defense to pre-empt his getting hurt.
I wanted to climb onto him. Or for him to climb into me. I wanted to scream that I would never leave him. I wanted to beg him for sex. I wished I could tell him the whole truth about my “deadline,” that it had to be before I turned twenty-two—which was just a bit more than a week away. My mother’s astrologer said missing this time frame would mean I’d have to wait another two years! That would mean not until the end of graduate school—pure torture now that I have tasted of the forbidden fruit. This odd astrological prophecy that had become part of my DNA, and this particular birthday was so important to me, but I didn’t bring it up. Instead, I rested my head against his chest, because I wanted that, too.
After a while, he relaxed next to me and pulled me close.
“Cuddling actually releases the love hormone oxytocin,” he said kissing my forehead. “It’s also called the Cuddle Hormone because it sort of cements an emotional bond and makes couples feel all warm and fuzzy. Hold on to this feeling when we’re apart.”
“Are you sending me home?”
“Alas, I must,” he said, lifting my hand and brushing it against his cheek, “but we’ll be together soon.”
He got up to go to the kitchen and came back with a takeout bag.
“What’s that?”
“Your actual picnic dinner, please make sure you eat tonight.”
It felt like we should curl up and go to sleep in The White Room after such an intimate evening. However, into the warm Manhattan night we went to hail a cab.
Once in the cab, I realized I was ravenous and opened the bag. It was a salad, water, and a cupcake with a cherry on tip. It had a Post-it note.
“You never know where my tongue may venture next,” it read. “Here’s to your sweetness and to more first-time pleasures and delights.”
Chapter Seventeen
Monday, May 30
VirgEnd Countdown: 6 Days
The Gallery
I was taken aback that I did not hear from him right after our “picnic.” It was the most intimate thing I had ever experienced in my life and I guess I expected him to call and tell me how much it meant to him, too. I at least expected to see the dancing sketch. But there was nothing. I scrolled through all the beach photos and summer vacation pictures on Facebook and my Instagram, and spent Saturday and Sunday catching up on TV shows.
I missed him. So much.
Frustrated that my V-day deadline was in six days, I decided to head to campus and use the pool to swim away my anxieties. I threw on my tiny gym shorts, put my phone in the pocket, and grabbed my gym bag and swimsuit. Tossing my wallet and keys in the bag once I locked my apartment door, I headed to the train station.
While waiting for the train my phone rang. It was Wednesday. And it was him.
“Good afternoon,” he said in his sexy, deep, professorial voice. “I figured class would just about be letting out right now and you would yet again be up to the business of trying to seduce me.”
“Ha! So now I’m Lolita?” I laughed.
“No, you’re just irresistible … and I can’t seem to get you out of my thoughts.”
“Why do you have to try to get me out of your thoughts?”
He sighed.
“Well, there are a thousand different reasons why I should not be thinking about you the way I am thinking about you, but I am also trying to get ready for my opening.”
“Oh, right, the opening.” Interesting that we both had scheduled openings on the same weekend. Was he going to invite me to his, or was I only privy to the previews he gave me in the White Room? “I do seem to recall a charcoal sketch highlighting my ineptness with penis art.”
“I certainly hope you recall the White Room, as well,” he said. “I can’t go in there without thinking of you now. The scent of your desire lingers there to remind me of you. All. Day. Long.”
I pressed my ear to the phone as if it were his face. After a moment of silence he spoke.
“So I’m taking a break, hopefully with you. Unless you’re busy.”
“I was heading to school.” I leaned against a subway pillar, absently tapping my sandal against it.
“Haven’t you had enough of that place?”
“Well, it does have a pool and I need to swim.”
“Swim?” His voice changed, like he was considering it. “That would explain your lower body strength and those lean, strong, lovely legs.”
I held back a laugh. “It also keeps my head clear.”
“I think you need to not be in school today.” He laughed.
“I just didn’t know where else to go. It felt weird.”
“Come to me in the city and have dinner, at an actual restaurant,” he insisted. “Maybe we can find a body of water afterwards.”
He was taking me out to dinner!
He asked me to meet him at Frankie’s Restaurant, near the gallery, and gave me the address. I took the train in that direction.
When I got there thirty minutes later, he was leaning on a classic red and white checkered tablecloth concentrating on the menu. All hot male and muscular in his black T-shirt and jeans, he looked so yummy. I wanted to kiss him. But since he didn’t make a move to greet me with a romantic gesture, I refrained from any PDA.
“Well, well,” he said, looking up, his dark eyes gliding over me from head to toe. “You look lovely, but I think you forgot part of your pants.”
