Chapter 1: Foreplay
Author's Note
: The word "bargain" has more than one meaning, but in this story it's used as a somewhat colloquial synonym for a transaction, or for a contract, or for a deal, or perhaps even better, for a concord. As will soon be revealed, the "bargain" will be an agreement of harmonious, mutual understanding between the parties, involving both an exchange as well as a course of action. Of course when the parties to any agreement delude themselves into believing they both have the same understanding concerning what the agreement requires, the results are likely to be almost anything except predictable.
BACKGROUND
Jenn and I were both second-year graduate students in the same department. I had spent four years in the Army immediately after highschool, so I was both older and more experienced. She had bright blond hair, rather small but perky breasts, and pouty lips that cried out to be kissed. Frankly she was gorgeous, intelligent, personable, and friendly - a combination I had not previously encountered in a woman.
We both lived in the same huge graduate dormitory, apparently designed to minimize heterosexual interactions. The men's and women's complexes were joined only in the basement and on the first floor. Located on the former were a gigantic cafeteria and dining hall, and on the latter were mostly dorm rooms, but also an administration area, a large formal living room, and our mailboxes.
Sixteen hundred unmarried graduate students lived here, half of them male, half female. About half of the rooms were singles, but I lived in a double to save money. The dining hall was the best place to meet people, and after meals I often drank several cups of coffee as I amused myself by observing the mating rituals of my somewhat younger fellow graduate students. .
Jenn and I each taught one undergraduate class, for which we received free tuition and fees, and we each enrolled in three graduate classes. We had been in several classes together during our first year, and I had taken Jenn out for perhaps two dozen casual dates. We really seemed to hit it off except when it came to getting physical. Whenever I tried to get too "familiar" (as she called it) with her, Jenn would remove my hands from her body and tell me to calm down. This really puzzled me since this conduct invariably happened after we had been kissing and cuddling for quite a while. It was obvious that she was really turned on. She had even pressed her hips against my erections and rubbed back and forth, although only when we both were fully dressed and standing up.
Early in our second year I twice got to unfasten her bra and fondle her breasts, but she refused to let me lift up her top so that I could see or - even better, kiss - her breasts. Unexpectedly she had abruptly declared that we had to be "just friends" because sex before marriage was absolutely and completely wrong. I really liked her, and I occasionally dated her in spite of this pronouncement. We still kissed and petted through our clothes, but that was obviously as far as I was going to get with Jenn. Or so I thought! At any rate we remained friends as well as colleagues.
Jenn and I were in the same, difficult course during the spring semester of our second year, and she was really working hard on it. We often studied together, trying to master the material by sharing ideas. At the end of the course we had a take-home final exam. The rules were clear: no collaboration, and neither help nor hints from anyone. We had five days to complete the exam before handing it in on Tuesday. Of course we also had to study for - and take - other finals, too. Fortunately for me this exam was due before my other two were scheduled, and I was able to devote most of my time to it.
I ran into Jenn in the graduate dining hall one evening after I had been working on the exam for almost three days. When I told her that I had finished it, Jenn frowned and got a strangely serious look on her pretty face. Being careful that nobody overhead her, she whispered, "Can you come up to my room for a couple of minutes?" Of course I agreed.
JENN NEGOTIATES A DEAL
When we got there, Jenn confided in me the reason she was trying so hard to get an A. Unknown to me she was on probation because she had received one too many grades of C, and unless she got at least two B's and an A that semester, she was going to be dismissed from graduate school without receiving her Master's Degree. Her other two courses were solid B's, and if she could complete the take-home final, she would get an A in the course we were taking together. She begged me to show her how to work the one problem she still couldn't figure out.
"Jenn, if anyone turned us in, we'd BOTH be dismissed!"
"Please, Don, you've got to help me!" Jenn pleaded.
"Jenn, you've always had incredibly high standards regarding your personal integrity. This is really out of character for you!"
"But this is my last chance! If you don't help me, I'm through! I don't know what I'll do if that happens!"
"So you're asking me to risk my own career for you? But we're not even going together, so why should I take such a big chance?" I didn't really expect an answer. I stared at Jenn, and she just stood there with her arms wrapped tightly around herself. She had clearly hoped that her request would have been enough to get me to help her. Because I'd turned her down, she decided to try something else.
Tears began running down her cheeks. Then she coughed, cleared her throat, and spoke. "You've been trying to feel me up ever since we first met. So I'll make a deal with you. You help me complete the test, and after our finals are done, I'll spend next weekend with you. Alone. Somewhere away from campus. Before I fly home to visit my folks. You only have to agree to two conditions. First, I don't want anybody to find out that we've gone away together, so you've gotta keep it secret. And second, we will not have intercourse. Anything else is fine, but not that."
Now that was a pleasant surprise - and temptation! I thought about Jenn's offer for a moment. "How about I pick the place, too? And you'll do anything except fuck, right?"
Jenn blushed. "I don't like that word! But that's right. I won't fuck you, as you so crudely put it! And yes, I'll do anything else you want. And you can pick the place. But everything has to remain our secret!"
I stood there, staring at her face. Jenn had stopped crying and she was looking at me with both hope and desperation in her eyes. I saw something else that I didn't like, and I thought about it for a moment. Behind her tears I noted that a haughty, confident look in her eyes. Hmmmm.
"OK, it's a deal, provided you agree to two clarifications: One, since we're both done with finals on Thursday, our weekend will run from noon Friday until Sunday evening when we get back." She nodded in agreement, so I went on. "Number two. The 'anything except fuck' part begins when I start helping you. That means we'll strip each other naked. And then we'll take lots of breaks to kiss, touch, and hold each other while I explain the solution to problem to you."
Jenn got bright red and shook her head. "Nobody but my gynecologist has seen me without my clothes on, and I'm CERTAINLY not going to let you undress me!"
I gave Jenn my best intense, angry stare until she looked away. "So you figured that 'anything except fuck' meant that you could parade around in your bra and panties and that I couldn't do anything about it without getting violent? And you know I'd never do that to you? Because we're friends?" The look of anguish on her face told me that I was right on the mark. "I figured that you didn't mean what you were saying, Jenn. Well, if you aren't willing to give me a completely naked down-payment on the weekend, there's no deal."
Jenn began to cry, and I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her. "Will you let me strip you naked? And will you do the same with me?" I asked, and Jenn shook her head as a waterfall of tears flowed down her face.
"Maybe somebody else will give you a better deal. Heck, you've still got another day-and-a-half, so maybe you can figure it out on your own. But you almost had me fooled. I guess once you sacrificed your high principles and decided to cheat on the exam, then cheating me out of our deal wasn't much worse. Well, good luck."
I kissed Jenn's forehead and went back to my room. She was still sobbing when I left. Since I was the only one she really knew in our class, I was almost certain that she would be calling me again to make a deal. Of course there was also a chance that she would figure out the problem on her own, but that seemed unlikely, particularly given her state of mind.
I amused myself by imagining what her next offer would be, assuming she called. Topless but not bottomless? Naked but no touching? I knew the shape and size of her breasts because I'd touched them. But what did they look like? How would she respond when I sucked her nipples? I was getting hard. I stopped daydreaming and returned to studying for my other finals.
JENN AND I AGREE TO A BARGAIN
Jenn telephoned me about noon the following day. She had less than twenty- four hours to finish the test, and she still couldn't do that last problem. "Will you PLEASE help me?" she begged.
"Are you offering me your deal, including my clarifications? Next weekend naked and alone with me without fucking? Starting noon Friday? And naked kissing and touching while I explain the problem to you?" Just thinking about this possibility was getting me hard.
