"Oh, I learned how from seeing you do it." Karen gave a start, surprised and more than a little embarrassed. But Kathie continued, "I saw you fooling around once under your nightgown in bed when you didn't know I was watching. I just stayed real quiet and watched you till I found out just what you were doing, then I tried it on myself. I knew you'd be real mad if anybody saw you because Mom came up the stairs for something and when you heard her you stopped and didn't do it anymore.”
It irritated Karen that Kathie had been spying on her, but there was hardly anything she could say under the circumstances. The little minx! The way she was talking, she must have been doing it to herself a lot. Probably even more often than she did.
A noise in the other room attracted their attention and they saw that Jerri and Rodney already had their clothes on and were going out the door. They hurriedly shifted things back to normal at their viewing post and ran back into their bedroom. Minutes later when Jerri opened the door to check on them, they were innocently watching their television set. Rodney was right beside her but she didn't introduce him to them. She told them to be good and not go running around the house, that she and Rodney were going out for a few minutes to get something to eat.
They nodded obediently and Karen gave them a big smile. Actually the smile was all for Rodney, but it wouldn't do to have Jerri know her intention. She remembered how groovy he looked in bed with her sister and how she wished several times while watching that she could have him doing things to her. And when Jerri opened the door, she was certain that Rodney had looked in and seen her even though Jerri hadn't bothered to introduce them. It just so happened that she was sitting in an awfully careless position and she knew that he could have seen a long ways up her loose-fitting dress with very little trouble. She smiled to herself and hoped he'd got a good look. Had he, she wondered? And if he had, did it give him, maybe, any ideas?
There was always Kenny, of course, her fourteen-year-old boyfriend. But all he'd ever tried to do to her was just kiss her a few times and she thought he was probably afraid to try more. If only he knew the things she was willing to let him try with her if he would just do it. She could hardly wait to put into action a lot of the things she'd seen Rodney and Jerri doing and to have someone make her feel the way Rodney made Jerri feel.
The night was filled with unspoken desires. At the restaurant where their mother was finishing dinner with Terry, the man was wondering just how frank he should be with her. He was completely dazzled by her good looks and a few years before he would have already been trying to get her in bed. But since the accident his sex life had undergone a radical change. He had learned from bitter experience that it wasn't every woman that could accept having a man make love to her with his mouth alone. He was only going to be in town for one week-end, should he risk revealing his secret?
Jane interrupted his train of thought. "The dinner was great," she told him. "If it weren't for having my daughter home from college and a whole houseful at home, I'd ask you by for coffee.”
Terry told her she had to be kidding. "A daughter in college? Impossible!" He had said things like that before to women at one time or another but this time he really meant it.
She smiled modestly. She had already decided that Terry was good-looking. Now she was beginning to like him quite a lot.
He thanked her for the invitation she wasn't able to extend and told her if she could make it, he'd love to have her drop by where he was staying before taking her home. His cousin, the same friend of Jane's who had arranged their meeting, was away for the night. That's why they had been especially concerned about having someone for him to go out with. Before another hour had passed, he was parking the car in front of their house.
"See,” he said to her, throwing open the door, "nobody around but us, Hope you don't mind.”
"Not at all," she responded, "after all those people in the restaurant, the quiet is a pleasant change from all the bustle. The food was great but there did seem to be quite a crowd there.”
"What would you care for?" he asked her. When they sat down to drink the nightcap, he shifted his feet restlessly for a minute and then plunged on. He told her he knew of her husband's fairly recent death and offered his condolences. She thought it was awfully nice of him, but was afraid he'd think she were still grieving. When she explained her acceptance of his death and her new life without him, Terry nodded in warm approval.
He told her he hoped that because of her own personal troubles she might be able to understand one of his. They were already sitting close to each other on the couch. She was touched by his candor and said she didn't know why not, touching his wrist in understanding as she spoke. He turned his hand and grasped her forearm, pulled her gently toward him, and met her lips over the top of her drink. He took the glass from her hand, sat it on the table, and pulled her close.
When she didn't protest, he gripped her waist tightly and pressed his hard chest against the resilient bounty of her yielding breasts. The firm pressure made him anxious to have her torso naked before him and see what she looked like. Although he was completely impotent he had found that he could sometimes achieve climax even though his penis was soft.
But before he could go into detail about his problem she pulled back from him slightly and said, "Wait, Terry. I don't want you to think I'm not enjoying your company. I am. Maybe too much. But we… we can't let ourselves be so-”
"Then you admit you're attracted to me! But don't you see? There's no problem then. Because I feel the same way about you. The minute I met you tonight I wondered where in the world my cousin found such a beautiful date for me," he gushed.
"But that's just it," she went on. "The… the way we're making each other feel might make us allow each other too much.”
"No, no," he rushed on. "Let me explain. You're probably worried about being with a man so soon after your husband died. You're probably thinking -let's be mature about it-that you don't want to let another man have you like your husband did, isn't that it? You'd feel bad about letting a man make love to you, about letting him enter you and consummate the relationship as he did with you?"
The sudden rush of new ideas stunned her. His very nearness to her started a physical response in her even though she didn't want to admit it. And the things he was saying were adding more to her anxiety. "I… well, I don't know. I guess if you mean… maybe I do feel a little bit that way but I can't-”
Her indecision was all he needed. He grabbed her close again and this time she felt his hand touch her in a place that made it difficult for her to think straight. Drawing her close to him again with his brawny left arm he dropped his right hand into her lap and began shamelessly caressing her there. He put his lips to her ear and whispered, "Relax, Jane, I can give you what you need without taking you. I can leave you intact and still give you the kind of love you need.”
Now he was irrepressible. He saw the possibility of the only kind of love he was able to have and wasn't about to let the opportunity escape. In an instant he had urged her backward onto the couch and had his hand on her legs.
"Terry, Terry, what… what are you doing? Please, I don't understand… wait-" she faltered. But he wouldn't let her finish.
"Don't talk, Jane. No questions, please. You understand this, don't you?" He traced his thumb and forefinger up the inside of her panty hose and she moved her legs nervously. "And you understand this, don't you?" he pressed. He stuck his hand under the bottom of her blouse and she felt the warmth of his hand on her naked stomach. "You understand this," he insisted. His hand disappeared all the way underneath her skirt and still she felt his fingers. Now she felt herself opening her thighs, felt herself yielding. "And this!" he exclaimed.