It was the late fifties and an unwise business venture had left Paul's widowed mother short of cash. Her solution was to take in a paying guest - a lodger β a young women who was alone in the world and on whom Paul soon came to focus his confused late-adolescent desires.
Her name was Rachel. She was about twenty-four at this time and although plain looking, with straight dark hair, she did have a striking figure that Paul constantly thought about as he moved into his nineteenth year. His wakening mind was filled with fantasies about her and his blue jeans stretched taught with painfully pleasant feelings.
She was always friendly toward him and seemed amused at his over-lengthy glances in her direction, especially when she leaned forward or crossed her legs, as these actions presented an, all too rare, momentary glimpse of that soft valley between her breasts or of her white cotton underwear.
As a sheltered, introverted, only-child, just coming to the end of an education that had been undertaken solely in male only schools, Paul's sexual exploits were confined to clumsy, but relief-giving bouts of masturbation and he suffered, silently, the agonies of natural adolescent longings.
***
It was about ten o'clock on a mild Saturday morning in May when, after his customary lie-in, Paul finally went down to breakfast. His mother had left early for town on her weekly shopping expedition and Rachel sat at the breakfast table eating toast and reading the paper. She looked up as he entered the room.
" Good morning, Paul," she said before diving back into her paper.
He grunted a response and collected some Cornflakes and a teacup from the kitchen and joined her at the table. Once seated, he poured himself some tea and started to eat his cereal.
As he slowly crunched each mouthful he glanced furtively towards the young lodger. Rachel had not yet dressed and was wearing a sheer silk dressing gown held together with a single twist of its belt. Movement had loosened the belt and the top hung partially open allowing a better than usual view of the upper slope of a full cream breast. Paul tried not to look, stealing overlong glances at increasingly frequent intervals until he was sure that she must have seen him. However, she continued reading her paper and munching her toast, occasionally stretching and re-positioning herself.
Unknown to Paul, Rachel had also taken more than a passing interest in him. Whilst mentally, Paul was immature to the point of naivety he was physically very nicely developed. He had the sort of body that would even look good in overalls - tall and slim with dark hair that he always left a little long so that it curled and gave him an unkempt look. His best feature, however, was his steel blue eyes, eyes that shined out of his face like thousand carat sapphires. Rachel had lain in bed most nights with her fingers between her legs fantasising about those eyes - wishing there were smiling down at her as his young hard body drove itself deep inside her.
As she sat, she was secretly relishing the fact that Paul was watching her. Watching as, with each movement, the top of her gown would fall a little more open and allow her breast to be slightly more exposed until finally, the edge of the dark pink aureole surrounding her nipple, peeped out over the top of her short cotton nightie.
"
She must have seen me looking
," Paul was thinking to himself when she said,
"And what are you up to today then, Paul?"
"Nothing much," he mumbled, looking away nervously as he spoke.
"Out with your girlfriend, I expect?" she teased.
He reddened and stuttered a denial, but she took delight in his discomfort and pressed on.
"Don't tell me a good looking young man like you hasn't got a girlfriend. I don't believe it."
"I don't seem to be able to get along with girls," he answered quietly, but her teasing was well advanced.
"I can't believe that, I get along with you and I'm a girl, or doesn't that count?" she continued, subtlety goading him, pouting and placing her right hand on his.
He nodded dumbly and reddened again at the intimacy of her touch.
"In fact, if I'm not mistaken, I think that you like girls a lot. Am I right?" She folded her paper, placed it on the table and gave him her full attention before continuing quietly,
" Boys of your age do start to notice girls. It's quite natural, you know."
"I know when I was your age I would watch boys for hours. It's all part of growing up and now you're becoming a man you will want to explore, to find out what sex is all about. Am I right?"
He shifted uncomfortably when the word 'sex' was mentioned, acutely embarrassed by the turn of the conversation, but compelled to listen nonetheless.
She lowered her eyes and her voice.
"I have noticed how you look at me, you know and l am glad that you find me nice to look at. You do find me nice to look at don't you, Paul?"
"Of course I do," he grunted sheepishly, still not able to look her in the eye.
"Maybe l shouldn't say so, but l know what it's like to be awkward about sex and l think that l can help, but you will have to trust me and you must promise never to tell a living soul - will you do that Paul?"
He nodded again, unable to speak his ascent because of his desert dry mouth and throat.
She was smiling as she slowly pulled open her dressing gown and lowered her night-dress to let the sun's morning rays illuminate the two magnificent pale breasts that jutted out proudly from her chest. Paul stared at them for some moments after which time she spoke again - more quietly and intimately.
"Would you like to touch them, Paul?" she purred what she knew, was a rhetorical question and took his hand before he could answer.
She placed it gently on her left breast and he started to knead it clumsily, feeling tremendous excitement from its firmness and warmth until she placed a controlling hand over his saying, "Gently, like this," and began to caress her other breast herself. Paul copied her actions and before long, her eyes closed and her breathing quickened. She rolled her nipple between her finger and thumb so Paul rolled her other nipple between his finger and thumb. She cupped and squeezed so Paul cupped and squeezed.
The clock ticked away the minutes as she purred and rolled her head until, at last, she opened her eyes and looked at him, "Um, that was nice, you
are
a quick learner young man, would you like to learn some more?" Paul nodded silently, but once again, he had no idea what she intended.
Reaching down, she pulled the hem of her night-dress towards her lap, baring her upper thighs and then, taking his trembling hand, she guided it to their inner part and then left it to its own devices.
"Do you know what l have down there. Have you ever touched a girl between her legs?"
He shook his head, still mesmerised and his fingers shook.
"Gently now," she whispered, closing her eyes again.
For the first time in his life Paul felt that gossamer smooth skin of a woman's inner thigh and was enthralled. He gently stroked the cool soft flesh with his fingertips for some time, unable to determine what it was that gave him so much pleasure. Rachel was clearly enjoying his touch because she shuffled her bottom to the edge of the chair, took his hand and guided it forcefully to the conjunction of her legs.
In those days, the closest a sheltered boy of eighteen got to knowing anything about the female anatomy was from the heavily thumbed (and often stuck together) pages of a "Health and Efficiency" magazine. The risquΓ© black and white pictures therein showed that all women had breasts, a dark triangle of pubic hair and played tennis.
Earlier in his life, his cousin, who was a little older than him, had allowed him to satisfy his curiosity and let him put his hand in her knickers and run a finger down her front slit, but she had kept her legs firmly together and her secret safe.
As a result, his ignorance of what lay between a woman's legs restricted his sexual fantasies to breasts, but this was about to change forever.
His fingers reached her groin and it was clear that Rachel wore no underclothes. Delving into uncharted territory, Paul discovered a plump mound covered in a soft, now damp, down of curly black hair and he ran an exploratory finger over it and up the front slit as he had done that time before with his cousin.