Introduction: 'Encounter' records in dialogue form sex between two middle-aged strangers who have not had intercourse for a long time. 'Encounter 2' continues the dialogue.
'Oh, Jane, you've no idea how marvellous it is to rest my head on that gorgeous bosom.'
'Did your Andrea have big breasts?'
'Not as big as yours, but charming, and sensitive. In our earlier years she could come just from having her nipples sucked.'
'Guy certainly enjoyed my tits. He used to come between them sometimes. I rather liked that, because I felt it showed how much he appreciated them.'
'Did you have other girls before you married Andrea?'
'Well, yes, I did. Several.'
'Did you have sex with them all, or just some of them?'
'Some of them. I was a bit of a sex addict, actually, happiest when probing a vagina. Stayed that way, too, but I managed to focus it on Andrea's. And hers was certainly lovely, even after the children. Quite tight and just the right length. Or I was, I suppose.'
'What was the right length?'
'Depth would be better, perhaps. It used actually to deepen as she got more aroused. When I first went in at times I was up against her cervix, but then it seemed to move further in, and it was wonderful to try and follow, pushing in to the maximum.'
'Do you know, Jonathan, I've never talked like this with a man, not even Guy. He liked sex, but he didn't want to talk about it, least of all about his experience before me.'
'Oh, well, Andrea was a talker, before, during and after. She found it exciting in our early days when I told her exactly what I had done with other women. She liked a kind of running commentary on what we were doing, too.'
'What was that like? Oh, but, sorry, you might find that intrusive.'
'No, dear Jane, not at all. I'll tell you what, I'll show you when we start again.'
'I'd like that. I have to confess I find it exciting, too, to talk about it. I'm getting a bit wet again, in fact. Feel.'
'That is delightful, running a finger along your vulva. Perhaps I can just pop into your vagina? Oh, yes, it's delightful in there. And you have such a sweet clitoris. It really stands out your lips, doesn't it?'
'Is it large? Larger than Andrea's?'
'Yes, it is. One of the biggest I've come across. In all senses.'
'Guy never remarked on it, but, then he wouldn't. He didn't mind touching and licking it, though. He knew that was the way to get me ready, and that was important, because he came rather quickly once he was inside. So I had to be almost there when he went in.'
'Had you had other men before him?'
'Only three, and I always thought of them as good, bad and indifferent, though fortunately not in that order.'
'Tell me more.'
'Well, bad came first. We were both very young and virgins. I was only nineteen, and I thought we were in love. But, actually, only I was. He had no idea about love-making, just forced his way in and came. At least I was on the pill, thinking I was preparing for marriage. Silly me!'
'Poor Jane. What came next?'
'Nothing for a long time, because I was too angry and scared. I stayed on the pill, largely because it helped regulate my periods, so when I became emotionally involved again I was protected. Against pregnancy, anyway. But not against incompetence. He was so handsome. He was mad on motor-bikes, and I realised later that he treated me as if he were tuning up one of his machines. Tighten this, oil that, inflate this one and adjust that one. In the end I half expected him to use his grease-gun on my nipples. When I had an orgasm he behaved as though he had just revved me up to top speed. So I think of him as indifferent.'
'But then you came to Mr Good.'
'I certainly did. That man was a sex-artist. He played my body like a musical instrument. He could make me come in two minutes, sometimes without my taking any clothes off. He could suck me through my knickers and just push them aside to get into me. He wasn't especially good-looking but he could use his fingers and tongue so precisely. And on the rare occasions we could go to bed he was inexhaustible and so inventive. He had me in every position there is, I think. He went beyond the Kama-Sutra without trying.'