This story took awhile to come together and I'm grateful for the encouragement, patience, editing and then the rewriting of the final scene by my editor and much more experienced writer LAHomeDog. I can't thank him enough for adding a guy's perspective and details that made it much hotter.
Tara pulled the whistling kettle from the burner and emptied a couple of tablespoons of oolong tea leaves into the strainer and poured, as steam filled the air with the mossy scent. While the tea steeped, she gulped a large glass of water, hoping that would alleviate her headache. The low pressure during rainstorms in the suburbs outside Washington, DC, where she lived did it every time.
It was her co-conspirator, Kelly's, birthday last night, which meant Tara's boyfriend Michael spent the evening at Kelly's Austin condo to celebrate.
They had a birthday romp, and she assumed a hot one.
All four of them, Tara, her boyfriend, Michael, Kelly and her boyfriend, Mark, had agreed to a once-only birthday swap arrangement. Basically the swap was a one-time gift to the loved one that they couldn't be with because of the pandemic.
Tara, meanwhile, had her own celebration with an entire bottle of Chardonnay, watching "Eat, Pray, Love" on Netflix, and then a visit from her pink, Lelo vibrator.
She wasn't sure why Javier Bardem got her so hot in the movie. He wasn't her type, but seeing him on screen made her imagine what she herself could do with him on an island like Bali.
Tara hooked her knee over the arm of the chair and leaned back, stroking her clit through the thin cotton robe. She thought of Kelly's boyfriend Mark, and the feel of holding his enormous biceps as she straddled him on the bar stool in her dining room for her own birthday celebration more than a month ago.
When the movie ended, Tara had considered calling Michael on video chat, but instead walked to her room, took the thin vibrator out of her drawer, and bent over an upholstered bench at the end of her bed.
She remembered the lingering pink marks on her butt from the spanking on her own birthday celebration as she slowly pushed the vibrator in until it disappeared into her soft, wet folds.
Tara straddled the bench so that when the vibrator started to slide out she could push against the bench cushion to keep it in and looked over her shoulder watching it disappear into her again and again.
She imagined she was astride a saddle from this angle and she leaned forward until her nipples dragged against the suede fabric of the bench.
She circled her hips as the vibrator slid out at one point of the circle only to be pushed back at the top point of rotation.
Tara wasn't thinking of Mark at this point or Michael, just the sensations pushing her toward a climax, but not quite over the edge. She wrapped her long legs more tightly around the bench and concentrated on the rhythm, anticipating each sensation with the changing motion of her hips
Soon she felt a familiar clench in her stomach, what she called the no going back point. Even alone, she never knew what kind of orgasm it would be -- how long or how strong. But she could feel the shift as every sensation stopped for a beat and then began to build toward this unknown crescendo.
She wanted one. She needed one.
Her hips froze as the first wave crashed through with one big contraction. Tara panted in the gap as the next wave shot through from her knees to the top of her head followed by smaller flutters.
After the waves quelled, she leaned forward to rest her cheek against the bench and took a deep breath as her heart pounded in her chest.
* * *
When they agreed to swap long-distance boyfriends to celebrate birthdays, Tara knew there would be difficulties -- particularly the day after one of them had sex with someone else.
She took her tea to her back patio, and lowered herself carefully onto the lounge chair, her head protesting the movement.
Tara checked her phone, no message from Michael. They video chatted in the afternoon yesterday before he left to go celebrate Kelly's birthday.
She held the steaming mug an inch below her chin and blew, sending more steam onto her cheeks. She pushed a stray wave of auburn hair behind her ear.
She smiled into the steam thinking again of her birthday celebration with Kelly's boyfriend. Tara met Kelly online in the early months of COVID, a pretty, younger woman, who wrote about relationships as a blogger in addition to her regular job counseling young women at a halfway house.
In some ways they were very different, Kelly was a hipster, fun and less uptight and traditional than Tara. But they had some similarities. They both had a fair amount of confidence and knew what they wanted, and easily communicated it to their friends, clients, and partners.
At her medical sales job, Tara ranked first in her district in sales. She considered herself a strong, independent woman who wanted a partnership where they respected and honored each others' wishes.
So she was confused why the spanking during her evening with Mark was such a turn on. Actually, beyond a turn on. It was the hottest thing that had happened in a long time. Maybe ever. It had actually embarrassed her that she got so wet she was literally dripping.
Between a range of fiction and a few porn clips, she understood some women liked to be dominated. If anything, Tara liked being in control -- she thought.
But still, the sensation, the blood rush and not knowing what was coming next that night in July got her hot then, and again this morning just thinking about it.
She shook her head, which was a mistake, her headache reminded her. But even though she would not cop to it, the creeping thought in her brain was in bed, she liked to surrender.
Actually, loved to surrender, at least that night, but still....
She checked her phone and then went on Google to research to see if being powerful and then surrendering in the bedroom was a thing. Turned out it was --- for some men and women.
She checked for messages again. Still no word from Michael.
By dinnertime, she was too worried to clean the kitchen. Her mind raced, wondering why she hadn't heard from him, and if this well-intentioned pandemic swap would be it for their relationship.
As each hour ticked by, she further worried she was missing the window to just text a casual upbeat message.
Tara clicked on her last chat with Michael, adding to the chain.
"How was your ride today?" Off topic, benign, casual, normal.
But her tight throat told her otherwise. She picked up the phone and called her friend Lori so she wouldn't just wait for a response from Michael.
"Well, what did you expect? You both slept with other people. How is this different than when he met that gal in April?" Lori asked.
"That time he called the next morning. Maybe the second time brought them closer? I don't know!"
"Well, what happened when you tried calling him?"
"I didn't."
"Oh, so you're worrying, and don't even know if there is a problem?"
"Yeah, I guess."
"This doesn't sound like you at all. Get a grip, girl. But how about we talk about the fun parts of this swap rather than your, err, worries. You still haven't told me. How was your night with bicep dude? Hot?"
"It was fine... different,"
"Nah, that's not good enough. Give it up. I'm horny too, and need some details!"
"Ugh -- maybe after the next time."
"Really! Again! Wow! And when is that exactly?"
