Chapter 5

Emma took a sip of her coffee, then stared at it for a time. Her curls had fallen forward, so I couldn’t really see her face. After a time, she asked, “Do you think of us as friends, or just as roomies?”

“Friends,” I said. I didn’t need to hesitate. Margot’s question had already had me considering the situation. We’d become too comfortable around each other to be less than friends.

“That’s the higher stakes component for me,” she said. “I want to stay friends, but that means I have to be honest. So I have to say that I’m already emotionally invested.”

“Last night you said you wanted to fuck me,” I said.

“It’s true,” she agreed. “I’ve wished things could be different. If you’d not been straight, I’d have asked you out. I wouldn’t have offered to help with your frustrations if I hadn’t thought of you as a friend, but it was being attracted to you that gave me the biggest kick.”

“Because I’m straight,” I said. “The lure of the unattainable.”

Emma shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

“But if we could gloss over last night, I think we could still be friends,” I said.

She looked unhappy. “Is that what you want?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Before last night…” I thought about what I wanted to say. “Before last night, I had some serious lust for what you could do to me, but it was for the result, not for you. Now…” I looked up at her and felt a stirring deep within me. “I want to go to your room and rip your clothes off.” After a second, I added, “No, I want to go to your room and undress you slowly.”

I felt my face warm at the admission, and Emma’s knowing grin seemed to be trying to make its appearance.

“Not as straight as you thought, maybe?” she suggested. “But that makes it even harder for me to pretend nothing happened, because I can’t pretend you couldn’t be interested.”

I sighed. “The thing is, last night messed with my head,” I said. “What if we go further down that path, and it turns out I’m not really into you, just the great feelings and novelty value? Don’t you deserve better than that?”

“You mean like bringing someone here who I don’t care about and who I barely speak with again?”

“Good point,” I admitted. “But then, you can choose to avoid them, or not. What if you don’t care about me any more than them? You can’t avoid me the same way.”

“Now you’re being perverse,” Emma objected. “I already told you that I’d have asked you out, if I thought it might be an option. I have had relationships before.”

“Is that what we have?” I asked. “A relationship?”

“I think we could have,” she said. Her expression was serious, without a trace of her smirk. “Beyond being friends, I mean. And I think you think we could, which is why you’re raising so many reasons why we shouldn’t.”

I thought for a moment, then sighed. “You may be right.”

“What you’re saying, I think,” Emma continued, “is that we can avoid any implications of what we did last night, and we’ll both be okay, and we’ll avoid getting closer, but we can still be friends. It’s the safe option. Or we can see where last night leads, and have something worthwhile, but we risk clawing each other’s eyes out and losing this…” she glanced around the small kitchen. “This luxury accommodation.”

I snorted. “When you put it like that…” I said.

“When I put it like that,” she suggested, the knowing grin returning in full force, “you want to risk taking me to my room and undressing me slowly.”

“Yeah,” I said, my voice suddenly unsteady. “Except I have to get to school.”

“Tonight?” she offered.

I rose to take my coffee cup to the sink. “If nothing else,” I said, “we’re going to have to figure out how to not let any relationship screw up our degrees.”

Emma was late home that evening. She found me sitting watching TV. I don’t recall what the show was. I just turned it on and turned off my brain.

“Did you eat?” she asked, brightly.

“OK, me too,” she said. “So, do… oh, shit, Tiff, what’s wrong?” she asked, after I looked up.

“Nothing unexpected,” I replied. “I called Cam.”

She took the other chair. “That was quick.”

“I wanted to get it over with. I knew it would be painful, but I didn’t want to break up by text.”

“He didn’t take it well?”

I felt anger break through my despondency. “He was a complete ass. He was upset, which I understood, and he wheedled, which I expected, but then he started demanding to know who ‘he’ was who I was leaving him for, because he was going to fucking kill him. I told him that wasn’t it at all, which is mostly true, but he didn’t believe me.”

Emma rose, then came to stand beside my chair. She reached out to squeeze my shoulder and I rested my head on her arm. “I’m sorry,” she said.

“When I say that wasn’t it, I don’t mean he got the gender wrong,” I said. “I mean that I realize that there are reasons other than sex that I needed to break up with him. He’s inconsiderate and selfish in other areas. After spending time with you, that’s so clear in contrast. So there was someone else, but not in the way he’s thinking.”

“You don’t see him changing?” Emma asked.

“No, I really don’t,” I said.

“Hope he doesn’t come down here to find out who you’re with,” she said.

“He won’t,” I responded. “That would be too much effort.”

“Well, it’s done,” she said. “Good job for having the courage.”

I gave her a quick grin. “Anyway, then I called Mom,” I said. “She and Cam are pretty close, so I figured I needed to tell her before he did. Sure enough, five minutes into the call she got a call from him. I think she’ll believe me, but I may not be quite out of the woods.”

“How are you feeling now?” Emma asked.

“Drained,” I said. “I needed to study, but I’ll do it tomorrow when I’m not feeling so down.”

“Is there anything I can do to help? I could go get some ice cream from the convenience store.”

“Hmm, maybe,” I replied. “Something sweet might lift my spirits.”

She took her hand back from my shoulder. “Give me twenty minutes, and… umm?”

I had grabbed the hem of her tee shirt and held it, preventing her from turning as I stood. “No ice cream,” I said. “That’s not the kind of sweet I had in mind.”

Emma actually blushed at the comment. “Oh, if it’s like that, I can definitely help,” she said.

“Your room?” I asked. “I’d invite you to mine, but…”

“Of course,” she said. “Go make yourself comfortable while I take my eyes out.”

“Okay,” I said, releasing her tee so she could head to the bathroom.

The bed was rolled up against a wall. I wasn’t sure if I could figure out how to arrange it on the floor, but it turned out to be straightforward, and I had it arranged when she returned, eyes wrinkled as she did when she couldn’t see.

“Do you need your glasses?”

She shook her head. “Stay close and I won’t.”

I took the hem of her tee shirt and began to raise it. “I’m planning on staying close.”

Emma lifted her arms to let me take the shirt off. I set it down, then ran my fingers over her waist, drawing her close. “Looking forward to seeing you this evening was the one bright spot. I don’t think I’d have summoned the courage to call Cam if it hadn’t been for that.”

I moved my face to hers. She parted her lips in anticipation, and we kissed lightly.

When we separated, she rested her wrists on my shoulders and looked into my eyes. Her voice was soft. “What happened to having no emotional investment?”

“I guess I started the day thinking about how much I want you,” I said, “which led me to start thinking about how much I just liked being around you, and that got me considering that you’d brighten up the day when I saw you, so I called Cam. I think there just might be some feelings involved.”

She smiled. “Let’s back up to how much you want me.”

“Okay,” I said. I leaned forward, reached around her back and unsnapped her bra.

She grinned and lowered her arms, allowing me to slip the straps over her shoulders and toss it onto her tee shirt.

I looked at the treasures I’d uncovered, the pale nipples on paler skin, quivering as she moved. I tugged lightly on her nipples. “How is it that boobs suddenly turn me on?” I asked. “I’ve never had a thing for them before.”

Emma licked her parted lips.”I’d be willing to bet that yours always have,” she said, “and you’ve just made the connection that they’re just as important to someone else’s sexual response. You’re waking to new experiences, and breasts are a part of your world now. Others’ breasts, that is.”

Then, as I kept caressing her breasts, she lowered her hands to unfasten my shorts, which fell to the floor. I turned my attention to unfastening her jeans, and soon we both stood in underwear, with nothing else in Emma’s case, and a loose white tee in mine.

Emma lowered herself to the bed, and I followed, kissing her until we were both breathless. Then I divested her of her panties, and caressed her pussy lips.

Her breathing grew heavy, and our kisses deeper. I sought her tongue and sucked it into my mouth as I slid two fingers into her and began to move them around, trying to learn the motions she liked. I recalled how good it had felt when she pressed against the wall of my sex, so I curled my fingers forward and began to rock my wrist against her.

Emma began to groan, and her body rocked against my hand.

Keeping up the motion, and keeping pressure on my hand, I slid down her body and began to kiss her breasts. She moaned softly as my tongue explored her nipple, then I felt fingers twisting into my hair, holding me to her chest. Excited by her response, I moved my legs closer to her, pressing my pussy to her thigh, my arousal boosted by both her movements and my own.

As her back arched, I saw Emma’s free hand squeeze her other breast. Her finger and thumb tightened on her nipple, twisting and tugging at it. She squirmed under me, making strangled sounds as she held her breath. Her thigh rubbed against my sex, and the erotic sensation grew within me. She gasped, breathed in again, and writhed as she held her breath again, lifting her face against my lips.

Then she shuddered and began to pant. I could feel her sex twitching around my fingers, and I slowed the rocking of my hand.

Emma’s hand left her breast, taking my hand and easing my fingers out of her. She lifted my hand to her lips, then sucked the fingers which had been inside her. The sensations her tongue brought me making my own breathing heavy, and I ground my sex against her thigh in pleasure.

When she released my fingers I lifted my face from her breast. “How was that?” I asked.

“Great,” she said. “Really great. Couldn’t you tell?”

“I just want to be sure I’m doing okay,” I said. “I’m new to this.”

“More than okay,” she said.

“And, God, doing that to you made me so wet,” I said.

“Then I think it’s time you were naked too,” Emma stated. She reached for my tee, and I raised my arms to let her pull it over my head. Then she pushed me down onto my back and lay on me.

Emma’s lips traced a line from my neck down to my left breast, which she suckled, making my body twist beneath her as her mouth sent ripples of passion down to my clit. I was already so turned on by what I’d been doing to her that I couldn’t lie still, but groaned at the stimulation. I felt my clit swell, amplifying and deepening the sensations.

Wrapping my legs around her thighs I drew myself against her belly, grinding my hips into her, while Emma pinched my right breast as she suckled the left.

After a time, she rolled to the side, forcing me to move my feet back to the bed as she removed my panties. Parting my legs, she moved back onto me, low enough to probe my navel with her tongue. Then she moved yet lower.

Oh, God, she was going to go down on me. And I couldn’t imagine anything I’d ever wanted more.

I felt her fingers slide into me, and I moaned as she tapped them on the inside of my sex. Each touch made my thighs tense as a wave of desire flowed out.

And then her tongue touched me, and I stopped breathing for a moment. Then my breath came out in a rush and my hips rose from the bed. Her fingers moved firmly within me, but her tongue just rested against my clit, so that my rocking against her hand dragged my swollen clit against her firm tongue and made me whimper with need.

When I couldn’t contain the arousal, I began to pant, feeling my clit begin to tense as the energy within it built toward overload. I felt my lips stretch into a smile as I approached the crest…

And Emma drew back her tongue and relaxed her fingers. I wriggled on the bed, trying to push myself the rest of the way, but she didn’t give me the chance. I whimpered as the tension in my clit came so close to breaking, then slowly, slowly, drawing me back from the edge.

“Oh God, Emma,” I pleaded. “I need to come.”

In response, she licked my clit, enough to send an electric charge throughout my body, but not enough to move me toward climax.

“Please,” I begged again, but I was getting further from the peak, and I couldn’t get there without Emma’s help. I even reached down and tried to touch my clit, getting my fingers under her face, but she pushed me aside.

Then her fingers started pressing against me, and her tongue began to move. I breathed a sigh of relief, and was soon approaching the point of ecstasy. “Oh God, yes…” I groaned. “Yes!”

And again, she let me down. I struggled to reach the end, trying to press my sex to her lips, but again, she denied me. “Emma!” I groaned. “Please!?”