"Good dizzy," she answered and smiled. "I should get back to work."
"Dizzy like in the romance novels?"
"Maybe there's something to those crazy things," Aanya said, and Zach started kissing her again. Soon they were tongue wrestling. That happened for a while, for a long while, and she broke the kisses again. "I think I'm feeling it," she proclaimed.
"I think we can make it work," Zach began, "and I have a concern. In your world, I want to point out, you'll be going from zero to a very sophisticated relationship. Our other crewmates, not universally, but for the most part, have had the chance to work out in their lives how they feel about romantic intimacy and what works and doesn't work for them. I'm not talking about the physical part. I'm talking about the emotional part, like jealousy and exclusivity, about how to fight fair; oh, there are so many things."
"I'm ready," she insisted. "Do you think I was born yesterday? Do you think I didn't see how they fought over you, how they jockeyed for position? And my attitude was, as usual, I can wait my turn. But I was intrigued, I'll admit it. Then the reports started rolling in. First the suggestive message from Alexis and Charisse, which was not off-putting, but I was indifferent. Then Colby said you really turned out to be the man of her dreams, like she always knew. Still I said to myself, she was in love with him already, of course she would say that."
"Then came the video Alexis took of you fucking Charisse. The amount of pleasure she was feeling was almost frightening. I knew this was nothing like what I'd experienced. It was overwhelming. And then the message from Colleen taking down the video and saying tone it down, girls, this was not a porn site, but we had all watched it and commented on it already anyway." Aanya noticed that Zach's expression had changed from interest to concern.
Zach had known that the women had been speaking to each other in a back channel, and probably even trading salacious comments, but he'd never imagined this. "All I want to know is does any of it disturb you, make you fearful?" he asked.
"I read all the reviews. They mattered more to me. Berte was very reluctant beforehand even though we were all encouraging her. After her evening with you, Berte said you touched her soul. She said she was in love, and she never thought she would get to be in love. It was so moving. But I scoffed at it and never really believed it could apply to me any more than the romance novels. When you appeared on the plane and interrupted me, I was afraid. I wanted to deny you and your power over women as I'd been denied. I wanted to use you like I'd been used. But you wouldn't let me."
"And the video didn't disturb you? You'd said you felt overwhelmed."
"I was disturbed at first, but then I realized that her screams were not screams of pain, and that she was begging you, begging you to do that to her, begging for it, the nasty slut. But now I also know from Berte's post that you can be gentle, are gentle. Alexis explained to me that Charisse wanted it, whatever, this way. I don't pretend to understand it."
"Do you think less of Charisse for wanting this kind of intimacy?"
"I'm sorry, that was my parents talking for a moment. I'm not the moral police, nor do I want to be. Actually, can I tell you something?"
"Of course, anything."
"I think I got excited. I started to sweat when I saw it. It was not what I wanted, but it had such intensity! My stomach fell out from under me. And then later, I saw that I'd wet myself, not that I felt myself pee at all, I was just wet. And there was this thrill of excitement, in my abdomen. I'm feeling it now, sitting next to you."
Zach kissed her again. They lashed tongues for a while, then he stopped and said, "When I want to be with a woman, it's because I'm excited, and also, I want to know her better, I want to explore her, how she feels in my hands, but also how she thinks and her feelings, what she cares about."
"So you want to be with me?" Aanya asked hopefully.
"Yes."
"What do we do then?"
"Are you sure..."
In a fit of frustration, Aanya put one of her tiny hands over Zach's big mouth to stop him. "Stop arguing before I lose my nerve!"
"Yes, ma'am." He called the hotel and made reservations, and also dinner reservations. He texted Alexis, "Missing dinner. May be late or absent again."
"What another virgin?" Alexis texted back.
"Even more tricky," Zach responded.
Alexis immediately texted back, "Let's be honest. Are we smothering you?"
Zach texted back, while Aanya waited impatiently, "Not at all. I love sleeping with all three of you. It's like a dream life, seriously. I hope that we can keep it up on Mars and you won't all drift away as more men become available."
Alexis texted, "If you keep pulling shit like this, you know we will."
"I'm sorry. I'll keep you posted." Zach knew Alexis was just upset. He knew she knew it really was important.
Zach drove Aanya back to the plane. She fussed with her pallets for another half hour until she was mostly satisfied. She called the transport people and told them the cargo could now be unloaded and stored where instructed. They grabbed her overnight stuff, drove to the Hilton, and checked in. Zach had a thought, and asked, "Can we have some plants put in her room?"
"This room doesn't come with plants, sir, but there is the garden suite."
"Tell me about it."
"It's very exclusive. The common area includes a private solarium filled with all kinds of plants, see?" he showed them a picture.
"She'll take it. Bill it to me, as usual. Thank you."
As they sat on the couch in the solarium. Aanya said, "This is very arranged, but it's nice, I like it." Zach began kissing her. They got to the point of wrestling tongues again pretty quickly. As they were kissing, he ran his hands over her body, and she didn't seem uncomfortable about that. He felt her nice, round breasts and ass through her clothing.
Aanya pressed and squirmed against Zach's body and hands as they kissed, obviously getting excited. He was getting excited, too, and not just by her sexy body. People were always so blasé about kissing after junior high school or so. This was like taking a kid to Disneyland, if that wasn't too creepy an analogy, he thought. The point being, you're enjoying it a lot more because they're enjoying this new experience so much.
Zach whispered into her ear, "Stop me if you get scared or uncomfortable, okay?"
Aanya said, "How could I stop you if...? Or if you can't...? I mean, I don't know what I mean..."
Zach stopped, thought, and realized that this was a woman who appropriately had great fear around matters of consent. Specific was great, though. He looked her in the eyes. "People have the ability to stop themselves at any point during sex. It's all very dramatic for people to say something like, 'oh I'm so close I can't stop myself,' but that's never really true. Also, good lovemaking requires clear communication, especially about when to stop, so I'm glad you brought this up. How about if you want to stop the action, say 'red,' or if you have something in your mouth, shake your head."
"Why would I have something in my mouth?" she asked, a little frightened.
"It happens during sex, believe me," Zach assured her, trying to think of an explanation that would not frighten her more. "Okay, for example, say we are kissing, like we just were, and my tongue is in your mouth. Say I'm also stepping on your foot by accident and it's hurting. You can shake your head to let me know to stop kissing you so you can tell me I'm stepping on your foot and it's hurting. Does it make sense now?"
