12:27. Rebecca looked at her phone again, the sun dancing off its screen. 12:27. Darren should be here soon if the taxi was running right and the traffic wasn't too heavy.
Her thumbs idly swept and unlocked the cell and she found herself flitting through the messages from the past few months. Sometimes they were frequent between them both: urgent, greedy, attention-craving. Sometimes days and close to weeks passed by without a word from him or from her to his inbox. That was okay though. She liked how they would just pick up and dust themselves down regardless of time spent absent elsewhere.
As she flicked upwards from the more recent ones concerning itineraries and flight times, she found the more explicit messages from them both. The ones that pushed any boundaries aside and gave in to this want that was forever under the skin, itching like hot blood.
She didn't quite know how it had happened, but she had never complained. This slow step from vague friends-of-friends to something dirty and hot and horny and full of sex. She remembered the first photo he had sent her way that was more than just his face. The joy and curse of Snapchat was how transitory it all was. One moment she could see his chest, the next? Nothing, and she responded in kind, over and over.
It remained in her mind's eye though: a grainy video with his hand straying lower down his chest until his eyes shut and his lips parted with a sigh as he touched himself.
It was a shit video in many ways: clichΓ©d, poor quality. The face he pulled and sigh he sighed were the face and sigh of someone who had never actually seen his own face whilst orgasming but looked like he thought he
should
look, but she was also in no doubt that he really was touching himself and wanted to turn her on, and that odd innocence and honesty was a bigger turn on than the photos and videos, explicit and direct and obvious, which followed.
Not that she didn't like seeing his thick cock in his hands; not that he didn't greedily watch her touch her clit hood and gulp as it grew sticky. She wanted to screencap his photos, but didn't want to be
that
person either. She thought he probably felt the exact same way about her pictures and videos.
12:29. Soon.
The sun was hot but her cheeks were tingling all on their own, and her gut was full of nervousness, more anxious than anticipation. This was it. Would the words match the actions, or would it be a letdown?
Anyone could take a half-decent nude and make themselves look wider or bigger or tighter, so there was no guarantee his body would match what she'd seen so fleetingly. Angles could flatter. He was fine, sure, but not toned or showing off. He was what he was, and she was hoping that would not be a lie.
Did he think the same? Wondered Rebecca, fingers tapping on the phone again. What was
he
thinking?
Her eyes scanned across the messages again. Words, adjectives, promises of intent. Her whole body arched towards an invisible something and she wished the taxi would hurry.
He'd be tired, of course. The flight was long, and delayed, and she wasn't sure how much sleep he would have got on the way. She knew she hadn't slept much, partly because hot and noisy storms had sung her to sleep all week. Partly.
They both owed one another a lot of nights of sleep. Messages at 3am, needy videos and requests. There was something about waking one another up that was a turn-on; that acknowledgment that they both wanted and craved this like their sanity depended on it. Like the next hour wouldn't run as it should if they didn't give in and make the other hot.
He didn't seem the type to be as dirty as he had slowly but certainly convinced her he was, but that only made it more intriguing. She wanted to know more, but she'd skirted around asking him about other girls and past fucks: definitely not through jealousy at all (heck no) but because she wanted to be surprised.
She asked though and he'd told her stories. Two of them had stuck in her head.
The first was about a phone call to another woman he'd been playing with. They'd never met to fuck, but the play had suited them both. He had called her whilst she was at work and unable to sort herself out, using her work cell to do so. He had spoken filth to her, describing in minute detail exactly what he'd do, and all she had been able to do was say, "Uh-huh. Sure," non-committal and dull to his sentences.
And when he had hung up, she had lasted an hour before taking time owed and leaving early, heading back to her apartment and Skyping him with a video call that lasted three orgasms, two toys, and cum on both their cameras, which he longed to taste. He had to make do with her tasting herself, which made him cum again.
The second wasn't dissimilar in some respects. A girl he'd met online briefly became a casual phone sex buddy: scratching an itch but nothing ever more. (This seemed to happen a lot: online flirtations but nothing physical. She felt for him but thought he should be more insistent.)
It was the power and desire aspects which rang similar. Darren had let her know that whenever she needed him (
needed
him), she just had to send him a text or message on WhatsApp saying, "Fuck me hard, baby," and if he was awake he'd respond with a call.
He'd given her the same offer and that was what had stuck in her head: the fact he was willing and wanting to let himself be her dirty little secret and object, like a fantasy sex toy.
She had called him once. 2:15 in the morning, her heart quickening as she typed out the words and then she paused. Did she want him like this? Would that seem needy or more than casual?
But he
had
offered and nothing had been weird so far. So she'd sent the message and 10 minutes later he had called her through Skype and his accent and words had sent her to her room with a pillow across her mouth so as not to alert the people walking by outside.
That was when the taxi rounded the corner in the distance. She couldn't hear it and she was surprised she had seen it, but her eyes must have been on the lookout. It slowed as it approached, and she felt herself descend into utter calm. This surprised her. Did this mean she was ready for whatever happened next, or was this her mind's way of shutting the whole thing down? Did she actually want this after all?
He got out of the taxi, awkward with his bag and small talk. The driver waved him away and he walked towards her, sneezing as the sun hit his eyes and simultaneously trying not to stare at her whilst not wanting to look anywhere else. It was sweet and also goofy, and that was nice and also maybe annoying. She couldn't tell which yet.
"Hi."
"Hey."
"Hey." He smiled this time. "Made it."
A little uncertainly they hugged, bare arms in the sunshine making her mind race places. Overthinking even a hug now. They held for a while, perhaps that half a beat longer than they should, then she walked him to her place. She fumbled at the door with her key and wondered if his hands would find her back but nothing happened. Was she disappointed? Too early to tell still.
The door opened and she led him in, showing him a place to put his bag and take off his Converse. He did, and she saw then that his hands were slightly trembling. He was overthinking all of this, too, she could tell, and she heard herself sigh involuntarily. That was always the trouble with these things: the reality vs. the talk.
She made her way to the kitchen and he followed, slight talk about the flight and sleep and sunshine. Avoiding the obvious. Water and OJ poured, more chat. Safe distance between them both. Work and shitty flight food and watched a godawful movie on the way over. Her work and crazy night out with a drunk boss and talk as small as his.
Drinks finished, glasses taken, placed in the sink. He walked over, closer now, and they talked some more, eyes not quite meeting but never too far away. She'd painted her nails thick red and lips hot pink and she thought she could see him looking, which sent a more confident signal through her skin.
Perhaps, perhaps.
"What's the plan, then?" he asked, at once innocent and yet she knew he was leading her places. Places she suddenly fancied going.
"Oh, a walk maybe? It's warm," she said, vaguely looking at him. His eyes fixed on hers and refused to go away. "Maybe some place outside." She walked towards him, slowly, and he didn't move an inch. "Maybe a walk somewhere nice." Closer still. He remained a statue. "Alone?"
Her hands found his and her head lowered. His did the same and he rested his forehead on hers. They waited a moment then as one looked up and at one another, eyes slightly closing now as he leant into her.
"Alone," he repeated, and then his lips found hers. Soft and slow, closed mouths but certain. His breath was warm but clean and as he kissed her again she found her tongue probing his mouth without any pause. Slow circles inside which he returned, hands tighter together, eyes closed shut now.
His hands found her waist and clamped round it, and hers strayed up his back.
This was nice. This was slow and steady and natural and nice.
And she knew that this would lead no further. This was nice; it wasn't erotic or the urge they had both said they felt online. It hurt a little, disappointed more, but mostly felt oddly comforting. At least they knew for sure now.
They stopped kissing and she found herself laughing a bit. He smiled in return, sheepish and sleepy.
"Go get a shower," she said. "Then maybe we can go for that walk?" He nodded dumbly, a "Yeah". Was that disappointment in his eyes, too? She thought it was, but then he walked away and the glance was gone and done.
She followed and showed him the restroom, and washed away their glasses as she heard the water pour and coat him. Rebecca stared at her nails and the water pouring down the sink, and she felt herself crumble a little. This was a shame.
She buried herself into distraction, messaging a few friends she had been meaning to reply to for a while now and putting the glasses away.
He coughed and smiled as he walked back, washed and in new clothes. He looked cute and the talk flowed easier now, devoid of pressure.