"Well," said Eva, "have you seen enough. Do you feel ready to have a go at the 'great game' now? I am sure one of the ladies over there would be happy to go with you, probably pay you something to do it if you need some incentive, or you could try one of the very attractive ones over there. You are quite attractive so they might be keen to do it with you, but if not you can easily afford to pay them a bit more. Or if not, my offer still stands. Make love to me. I would like that even more now I know how civil and gentle you are. Offer me a reasonable price for yourself and I will pay it, but don't make it too high because I can always make an arrangement with a different man."
He wasn't answering straight away. This was a new situation for him evidently, although he had been with women before, he had told her. "You don't have to choose me. Go for one of the other ladies. I don't mind. I won't be missing out." She judged that perhaps he would prefer one of the other ladies, but did not wish to appear rude to herself. Eva could see he was a very sensitive man, always reluctant to hurt anyone's feelings. He did not appear to have a very strong opinion of himself, but if he had enjoyed as little sex as he had told her it was unsurprising that he had low sexual confidence. She wondered if he would have the courage.
Salohkin was thinking. He felt nervous, as always before the prospect of sex with a new person. What was holding him back? He had come here as a traveller, unaware of the local sexual practices, and it had caught him off balance. At first he had been convinced that if Eva was not a prostitute she must be winding him up. He had half believed her but had needed to be convinced. This place, the city, the country, the continent, what he had seen of it so far, looked so normal. People worked and travelled, and ate food in much the same way as back home. The sexual liaisons were not obvious to the casual observer. If anything the people looked so serious, as if they were working hard, and not having all that much fun. Liaisons occurred on the street as Eva had shown him, and she had pointed to others making contact but they all went away behind closed doors for the sex. They wore attractive clothes. The women looked fabulous, and they were well dressed. The clothes were 'liberated' but not particularly revealing. Couples held each other after contact and kissed fairly politely, but they more usually went with their arms around each other, or arm in arm, until they were indoors. There were no great displays of affection or lust such as you could see in his own country. It appeared to be a very businesslike transaction, done without much humour or warmth, although he still could not comment on the kind of lovemaking which went on in the bedroom. Well it was time to find out.
He was very excited. If everything he had seen and Eva had told him was really true, and he still could not fully believe it, sex was on tap any time he wanted it. While he stayed here he need never be lonely for love. Relationships he had seen so far in this land however looked too casual to have any great warmth or passion about them. He was just finding out about the system here. Presumably not everybody indulged in this extreme casual promiscuity. There must be marriages and loyal partnerships, and families, surely. Nonetheless a casual relationship would suit him. He had never wanted to marry anyone he had ever been with before, and had always fantasised about being very promiscuous.
Eva was waiting for him to answer her. He sensed she might be upset if he did not choose her, although she certainly encouraged him to choose whoever he liked and said she did not mind. Perhaps he was reading it all wrong. If she could have sex with different men every day what would he matter to her? He was just another statistic. But he had allowed her to be his guide and kept her from her sexual exercises. He felt he owed her sex now because she had been so patient with him. That was a strange thought for him to have because he normally thought of sex as a form of begging. A man had to ask women if they would let him make love with them. He had rarely felt women really wanted sex from him. If a woman wanted to reward him for being patient or funny, or spending money on her, then sex was the reward. He had often felt guilty about asking for sex from a woman. It was something he felt they did not give lightly, and they usually had ulterior motives for giving it. He had been with prostitutes too on occasion. They were almost as bad as 'normal' women. They certainly wanted something - money, but they always seemed to want more of it than you expected. Again they had ulterior motives. They could be far worse than 'normal' women, because they did not need to work at the 'relationship'. Would these women in this strange country be any different? He hoped so. Eva seemed different. She really seemed to want sex. For that reason alone he would choose Eva. He already knew her, and she was nice, and patient, and he knew she wanted sex. Any other stranger here would have seemed like a gamble, just like the women at home. At least Eva was genuine.
When Eva had approached him he had liked the look of her from the start. A medium height woman, with an average but very wholesome sort of face. Hers was the sort of face whose owner doesn't usually think is particularly special, but is quite satisfied with, which the opposite sex actually finds very attractive. In this place Eva appeared sexually confident, because sex was so easy to obtain. She might not win any contests, but she was very feminine. Her black hair was cut down to her shoulders; her skin was white, no trace of tanning. She wore a blue blouse and a black skirt. Nothing was especially remarkable, but to most men she would be attractive, fairly standard, maybe above. Her legs were bare in the warm summer, nicely shaped, not fat, reasonably muscled as if she did a reasonable amount of exercise. Her age? Well he thought she might be a bit younger than himself. He was thirty. That put her at somewhere in her late twenties, he concluded. Yes he did fancy her.
"I would like to do it with you Eva," he began shyly, unwilling to voice the words make love, or sex. "I think you look gorgeous," he did not avoid that strong compliment. "Can we do it without money, or would you like to charge me." He was joking again now, but Eva recognised that he was only joking about the money. She was getting to understand him at last. She held out her arm and he took it.
As they walked towards the lift he slipped his arm right around her, and she did the same. His heart began to pound. This was it. He had not had any sex for months. It always made him nervous and excited, with unfamiliar people. You had to let go of your caution sometimes and just go for it. Once you've started the path, or taken the plunge you had to relax and flow with it. She had pressed the lift button - there were four lifts altogether in this building. One lift quickly opened and they slid inside. He had time to notice that all of it, the sides, the ceiling and the floor of the lift, were all mirrored. In the mirror he saw her press the button for one of the levels, then she was all over him. She took his face in her hands and kissed him strongly on his lips. Her tongue was out, and she licked his face, while her arms attacked his body, feeling it, around his shoulders, down his back, into the crack between his buttocks. He responded, there was no purpose in further words. He massaged her through her clothes and licked her face. He could feel her breasts and her buttocks. Quickly, too soon, they were at the floor she had selected. The doors began to open. Eva stopped her lustful behaviour, although she still held him. There was a curious privacy about these people. Sex was an everyday adventure for them, but they did not like to show it in public. He wondered why, storing it in his mind to ask Eva later.
She led him out into the corridor. It looked like just any hotel corridor. They turned left and she looked at the lights above the door handles. "Red is engaged," she said, "green is free." The first few on both sides were red, and Salohkin began to appreciate just how many people were probably having sex in this building right now; many more than just the few couples he had seen entering and leaving the lifts down below. It seemed that most couples, when they came upstairs couldn't wait to get into the first room available. Well, if the females were going at the males in the way Eva had done in the lift it was easy to see why.
Eva found a green door. There was a slot in the handle itself. "The handle doesn't turn unless we pay for our room," said Eva.
