Until the Next Time

We were alone in my apartment, sitting on the couch. The movie had ended and we had reached the part of the night where she would pick up her things and go home.

'You could stay.' I told her.

Caroline smiled at me. 'Thanks,' she said. 'But not tonight.'

I put my arm around her shoulder and kissed her on the lips. 'You could stay,' I repeated. 'We don't have to do anything.'

We had known each other for years but had only started dating a couple of weeks ago. I knew that it was too soon to expect her to have sex with me -- Caroline wasn't that sort of girl -- but I wanted her and there was no harm in asking, was there?

'We don't have to do anything,' she told me. 'But we will if I stay, and I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet.'

'Sure, I understand,' I lied.

I kissed her again. 'So you're not ready to have sex. How do feel about me kissing your neck?'

'That's okay.'

I kissed softly her on the neck. Her long brown hair brushed against my nose. It smelled like oranges.

'How about if I kiss your shoulder?'

She laughed. 'That's fine too.'

I kissed her shoulder. She was wearing a black vest top and the straps of her bra were visible. I touched them with my fingers, brushing them aside to kiss the skin they covered. My lips moved down her shoulder and onto the soft, pale skin of her arm. She giggled as my caresses tickled her.

I decided to be daring. 'Will you let me kiss your belly?' I asked.

She gave a sigh. 'I have to go.'

I noticed that she had not actually said no. Slowly -- so that she could stop me if she wanted to -- I put my hands on her waist and pushed her vest up, exposing a couple of inches of naked flesh. I bent my head and kissed her. My lips caressed her gently, making slow circles around the circumference of her navel. I tasted the saltiness of her sweat.

She ran her fingers through my hair. I took her hand and kissed her wrist, looking her in the eyes all the while. I could see her hunger and the indecision that weighed on her -- whether to take this further or end it now.

I kissed my way along her arm until my head was level with her chest. I expected her to stop me at any moment, but she didn't say a word. Emboldened, I traced a line of kisses like a necklace across her throat. She obligingly tilted her head back for me, a soft moan escaping from her mouth.

My lips paused uncertainly at her breastbone. 'Do you mind if I kiss your chest?' I asked her.

'Do it,' she said. 'But only once.'

I bent my head and kissed her where the plunging neckline of her vest bared the skin between her breasts. I had never been so close to her before and I felt nervous with excitement. Caroline's breasts looked soft and inviting, the skin creamy pale. I felt like a kid who had snuck downstairs on Christmas Eve and was staring at his presents, trying to see through the wrapping paper to find out what was underneath. There was that same delicious sense of having something that wasn't quite mine to play with yet -- but which would be very soon.

I decided then and there that if Caroline didn't want to go all the way tonight, neither did I. This teasing was too good.

Our faces met and I kissed her hungrily on the lips. I told her how I felt, and she agreed.

'But I want to see you.' I told her. 'Please, let me take your top off.'

We were taking things to another level, and we both could feel the tension growing. 'You can look.' Caroline told me. 'But you mustn't touch.'

I promised not to and she lifted the hem of her vest and pulled it up over her head. I admired the shape of her torso, the way the skin drew tight against her ribs when she raised her arms. She wore a silky black bra and I could see that her nipples were erect.

My hands hovered just inches above her skin. I wanted to touch her, but I knew that would be going too far.

For now I simply looked.

'Take off your shirt,' she told me. 'Why should you have all the fun?'

I laughed and did as she had asked. She did not need to ask my permission to kiss me. Her lips touched my neck and my shoulders and traced a gentle path across my chest. She caressed the contours of my muscles with her fingertips.

I bent my head and breathed the aroma of her hair, infatuated with it.

'Lie back,' I told her.

Her eyes were full of questions.

'I want to kiss your legs,' I said.

I could see it in her eyes that this was the million dollar question. Stripped to her bra, would stripping down to her pants be a step too far? It all came down to a matter of trust.

I guess I have an honest face.

Caroline reached for the clasp of her belt and slipped it free. Her fingers worked with the buttons on her jeans, opening them to reveal silky black panties that matched her bra. Dressed like that, I wondered if she had entertained a notion from the start that perhaps things might end like this, or perhaps go even further.

Maybe it had been a fantasy that she had entertained all through the afternoon that we had spent together, and now I fulfilled that fantasy for her in ways she had not expected.

I helped her pull her jeans down to her ankles. Her legs were long and smooth and gorgeous. I started by kissing the tops of her thighs, the backs of her knees. Caroline let out a soft moan and I made a mental note for next time that here was a place that she liked to be touched.

I pulled her jeans off the rest of the way and set them on the couch beside her. I kissed her calves, her ankles and the soles of her feet. With my hands I stroked her from the top of her thighs all the way down to her ankles and back again.

My lips followed my hands, tracing a path back up her legs. I savoured the special place at the backs of her knees and relished the way in which she squirmed beneath my touch. She sucked on her bottom lip, her eyes half-closed in rapture.

I kissed my way onto her inner thighs, alternating between one leg and the other. When I drew close to the forbidden territory marked by her panties I felt her hands against my head, warning me not to continue. I obeyed her. My hands glided over her hips and teased at her waistband, but I went no further.

Caroline reached for my belt and we shifted positions. She climbed over me while I sprawled out on the couch, her discarded clothes beneath my back. When she unzipped my fly, her fingers accidentally brushed my cock.

There was no hiding my erection. It made a tent out of boxer shorts and I caught Caroline looking at it as she pulled down my jeans. I got the impression from the look on her face that she liked what she saw.

She started kissing me just beneath my boxer shorts and worked her way slowly down my legs, just as I had done to her. I had never had a woman lick my ankles before. She kissed the slope of my instep and her fingers massaged my calves.

Her eyes met mine and I bent forward and took her face in my hands. In her eyes and mine was the desire to go further, to take things all the way, but though the heart and loins were willing, Caroline's mind still said no.

We kissed each other on the lips and parted. She got dressed and I walked her to the door. 'Until the next time,' she told me with her hand against my chest.

From the way it had felt that evening, I did not think that I would have long to wait.