Pleasure for Pleasure (4 page)

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 first 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.

T
ONIGHT
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.

 

I
T 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 learn 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.”

“I'd hoped we could take this slow, since I seem to have a problem with rushing into sex.”

Slow? He wanted to take it slow? Josie wasn't sure she could survive taking it slow. She wasn't sure her shower head could survive.

“But how will I be able to tailor my lessons to your needs, unless I have a complete picture of what your needs are?” There, he couldn't argue with that.

He quirked one eyebrow. “Good point. Okay, I suppose a little kissing won't hurt.”

Trent was only inches from her now. That familiar old panic filled her chest, stopped her breathing, froze her in place.

Reality set in. She couldn't kiss Trent, because kissing would lead to so much more. More than she was ready to handle. Not with him. She'd lose control, lose herself, he was too sexy, too gorgeous, too
everything…

But he had said his girlfriends always left him after they slept together. He wanted her help because he was a boring lover, not a scorching one.

She reached out tentatively and slipped her arms around his neck. Stood on her tiptoes and tilted her face back, bringing her mouth to his. He pulled her close as he settled his lips on hers, and they began to taste, to explore.

He smelled freshly showered, which made her wonder for a moment if he'd had the same kind of shower she'd had, but then the sensation of his lips on hers overtook her and her mind went blank. His tongue caressed hers, coaxing her slowly but surely into a kiss that could burn the fog off of the San Francisco Bay.

Wow. He was a much better kisser than she remembered. She was just settling in to fully enjoy it when he pulled away, took a step back.

“How was that?”

Josie snapped her mouth shut and blinked, struggling
to remember what he might be talking about. “Your technique seems quite satisfactory to me. You've had complaints about your kissing?”

He shrugged, looking a little embarrassed. She realized she'd have to tread very carefully for the next two months not to step on his ego.

“Not the kissing, no. But I haven't had any rave reviews, either.”

Josie frowned, doing her best to consider the issue academically when her body was screaming for sex. “There's always room for improvement. And in my experience, practicing is really the best way to improve.”

“I'm willing to try anything.”

Ah, good. An eager student was just what she needed right now.

“I suppose we should talk about the right timing for a kiss, before we really get into the practicing.” She took a seat on the couch and motioned for him to do the same.

“You mean, how early on a date?”

“Not just that, but how frequently during lovemaking. Kissing is an extremely sensual experience for a woman, just as intimate a form of contact as sexual intercourse.” She resisted the urge to glance at her folder full of notes.

“So when's the right time for a first kiss?”

“That really depends on the woman, how well you're hitting it off with her, how strong the physical attraction.”

His gaze swept over her briefly. “Take us, for instance. Assuming we hadn't just kissed, how soon do you think would be appropriate for us?”

“That's a tough call, since we've known each other forever, and we're not really on a date now.”

“But we're attracted to each other, aren't we?”

Josie shifted in her seat. This was even harder than she'd imagined. He was a student asking too many questions, the bane of every ill-prepared teacher's existence. “Yes, I'd say there's some attraction, but I think we should keep our relationship strictly on a student-teacher level.”

He shrugged. “Whatever suits you.”

“I hope, by the end of our lessons, you'll have developed a sixth sense about the timing of such things.” She swallowed, the taste of Trent still lingering, reminding her of what she really wanted to be doing now. “What you need is practice, lots of practice.”

“So is that all we're going to do tonight? Kiss?”

“N-no,” Josie stuttered., “I'd like to get a full assessment of your current skill level.”

“You mean, like a standardized test?”

Josie bit her lip and held back a grin. “I guess you could call it a test, but it won't be multiple choice.”

“I wish you'd let me know ahead of time that I'd be tested, so I could have prepared.”

“No preparation necessary. This isn't the kind of exam you can study for.”

She felt his gaze follow her as she leaned down and unbuckled the ankle strap of one sandal, then the other. She slipped her feet out slowly, hoping her actions looked seductive and not merely routine. From her vantage point, she took note that his own feet, already bare, were strong and tanned and sexy enough to kiss.