I awoke next to Jessika. As I lay listening to my brunette lover breathing, I reflected on the night before. After our dinner date, she had told me that she wanted me to make love to her and pretend that it meant something more than just being friends-with-benefits. I had been unsure about the pretending part, but I had gone along. The result had been an intense orgasm for Jessika followed by her finishing me off with her incredible mouth. Then, after we had both dozed, she woke me up and asked me to engage in hard, nasty sex with her on the floor. I had gone along with that as well, even though I had noticed that Jessika had been crying before she woke me.
I could not say I regretted either time with Jessika, but I was worried about what she was feeling and whether what I thought was the inevitable transformation of our relationship away from friends-with-benefits was something she would fight or allow to happen naturally.
Movement beside me caught my attention, and I turned to see Jessika looking at me. Her gray eyes still showed some hint of red, but she was smiling.
"Tender and slow or hard and nasty, you sure do please, Mr. Warner," she told me. "I never thought one man could do both for me so well."
"It's because of you, Jessika," I told her, stroking her soft hair. "I want to please you."
"Oh, and you do," she sighed. "So, so much."
We both fell silent for a few seconds before Jessika asked, "Do you think I could get you hard enough for me to ride? I know I've probably drained you dry at this point."
"I would be shocked if you could," I grinned. "But you've shocked me before."
"Is that an invitation to try?"
"I guess so."
Before I had finished speaking, Jessika repositioned herself so she could take me into her mouth. However, unlike the night before, I never achieved a full erection. Knowing it was not going to happen, I moved Jessika's head away.
"Lie back and spread your legs," I told her.
The brunette narrowed her eyes and looked at me, then she did as I said. When she was in position, I kissed and sucked both her nipples, then began kissing my way down her abdomen, which quivered under my touch.
"That won't be fair to you," Jessika protested as I reached her groin and began kissing around her pussy.
"Just shut up and enjoy yourself, Jessika," I said right before using my fingers to spread her labia so I could get at her clitoris with my tongue.
"I always do with you," she moaned, tightening and loosening her grip on my hair as I licked her.
I thought about putting a couple of fingers inside her or playing with her breasts, but I decided to concentrate on stimulating her most sensitive spot. And after only a few minutes, it paid off as she squeaked through her climax.
***
Jessika and I went out to breakfast after I had licked her to that one last orgasm. Following breakfast, I returned home to complete the grading and class prep I had ignored all weekend. We did not make plans for a future meeting, other than reserving March 14th. However, Jessika seemed content when we said our goodbyes, and she did not mention needing to spend time apart, as she had done in the past in situations in which it seemed we might be becoming closer than friends-with-benefits.
As I worked through the week, Jessika and I texted back and forth regularly. She did not suggest skyping again, nor did we have phone sex. In fact, nothing we texted about was overtly sexual, although there was a fair amount of flirting involved. I wondered if this was a new way of giving herself time to either force herself back into believing our relationship was not changing or try to accept those changes, but I saw no need to push her. Sure, after a couple of nights my body was ready to be with her again, but I wanted to give her time to sort things out. And I was hopeful that maybe her visit with her sister and her sister's kids over the coming weekend might help her decide what she wanted out of our relationship.
I had not heard anything from my other lover, the twenty-year-old Jessi. She had not responded to any of the handful of texts that I had sent her after she had texted me "fuck you" because I had other plans the prior weekend. So, I was surprised when she walked into my office at the end of my office hours on Thursday afternoon.
"Hey Mr. Warner," the blonde said, fidgeting.
She was wearing a loose, green turtleneck sweater, blue jeans, and white walking shoes. Her clothing, as well as her red glasses and hair pulled back into a ponytail, made Jessi appear a lot more innocent than I knew her to be.
"My office hours are over, Jessi," I told her. "I need to get ready for my evening class."
Jessi gave me one of her over-long and often disconcerting stares, but I had built up an immunity to them at that point, not reacting other than to return it.
"Can I talk to you for a minute?" she asked before moving into my office and shutting the door.
"This is not a good idea, Jessi," I told her in a low voice. "We have not even talked in nearly a week, and yet you come in here to do, well, whatever you plan on doing."
"You didn't object last time I visited your office, Mark," she said, crossing her arms over her chest. "But I didn't come for that anyway. I thought about texting you, but I couldn't get the words right, so I came to see you."
"Sorry, Jessi. I assumed..."
"With good reason," she shrugged. "But I'm trying to be different, and I feel bad about that last text I sent you. So, I wanted to ask you over to watch a movie tonight. I'll even supply the pizza."
"I have class then office hours afterward," I told her. "I won't be done until 9:15 at the earliest."
"Ditch office hours," she suggested. "I'm guessing class is over at 8:15 like mine was, right? Come over after that. You don't have to be back in until your office hours tomorrow afternoon."
"And we would really watch a movie?" I asked her.
"Yep," she nodded. "If you can keep your hands to yourself, that is."
"I'll try," I laughed.
***
It was twenty minutes before nine when I knocked on Jessi's door. I had skipped office hours after determining none of the students from the evening class were planning to take advantage of them, then driven straight to her apartment. When Jessi answered the door wearing one of her oversized sweatshirts and yoga pants, I felt a bit disappointed. A part of me had expected her to answer the door wearing nothing or next to nothing. However, I was pleased to see that all that remained of the bruises on her neck were pale yellow splotches.
"Pizza's on the table," she told me after we hugged and kissed. "I've got the movie ready to go. I don't have any place to watch it other than in bed, so I hope that's okay."
"I am sure it will be fine," I assured her, thinking that I saw her plan. She would wait until we were in bed watching the movie, then make sure we did not spend much time watching the movie.
"Good," she smiled.
"By the way, what is the movie?" I asked her, figuring it would be something not that engaging so we would lose interest in it and concentrate on each other.
"Watership Down," she replied. "I know it's a kid's movie, but I wanted to watch it again after reading Maia. I think I might have a different view of it now since I know more about the author."
"I have not seen it in some time," I told her, reevaluating my assumptions on what her plan might be. "It is not really a children's story, although that is what they tried to do with the movie."
"Yeah, that's what I was wondering," Jessi said. "I want to read it again, and the book about the bear you told me about, but I thought the movie would be good for now."
After putting a couple of slices of pizza on a paper plate, I moved from the small kitchen to the main room where Jessi was sitting cross-legged on her bed. I sat beside her, and she started the movie. I took care not to get anything on the bed as I ate my pizza, and I placed the plate on a side table once I was finished eating.
When Jessi saw I was done, she lay on her side in a position where she could see the TV. I lay beside her, watching over her shoulder as I lightly rubbed her side. After a while, I reached around and caressed her left breast through her sweatshirt.
"Um, Mark, let's not do that right now," she said, moving my hand back until it was resting on her hip. "And I'm not saying I don't want to do anything. I just want to watch the movie first. Okay?"
"Sure, Jessi," I told her, running my hand up and down her hip.
"Thanks, Mark," she sighed.
***
"Well, it's not about rabbits at all, is it?" Jessi said, having turned to face me when the movie was over. "I mean, I knew they were kind of like people, but I didn't really think about how much it's really about people."
"Stephen King has a character in one of his books realize the same thing about the book Watership Down," I told her. "Adams was a major influence on King. A cyborg bear called Shardik even appears in a King book."
"And the book I read, Maia, it's also about how people treat each other and how they judge each other, right? Like Maia is a slave but the man who loves her sees so much more in her and judges her differently from how others judge her. That's why he's so disappointed when he thinks she betrayed him, right?"
"Those are all part of the book, I think," I agreed.
"But there're also some sexy slave girl parts," the blonde continued, grinning. "And I do think her man will still be getting the benefit of what she learned as a slave even though she's not one anymore."
"But generally slavery is viewed as an evil in the book. Shardik, which as I told you is in the same world but a few years later, makes the same point."
