Intimacy

ELEVEN

Eleanor's confusion had to be resolved somehow and it was only natural that it should be resolved in the sexual realm. What was

not

to be expected was that it should be with Hayden rather than Caroline that she worked out her frustrations.

In order to make sure that everything went according to her plans, she arranged for Hayden to stay the night - something he'd never done before. The pretext was a dinner she was going to serve him after they had spent the first part of the evening at the local pub, celebrating her graduation, which had all but been confirmed.

They would eat the chicken tray bake late, and then she would seduce him. Do to him, in fact, what his sister had tried to do to her. Since she wasn't on the pill, she would use the rhythm method, which shouldn't be a problem, as she would have just finished her period. If he insisted on wearing a condom, so be it, but she didn't keep any and it would really surprise her if he turned up with some. Even though she had told him he must stay the night, she knew him well enough to know that he wouldn't be expecting to have sex, and that he'd be expecting to sleep on the sofa.

As expected, getting him to join her in the bedroom after he had showered and changed into a T-shirt and undies proved a little challenging. In the end, he agreed, on the condition that he would go the living room if she had trouble dropping off.

Despite the fact that Hayden wasn't exactly on the same wavelength, Eleanor found his fumbling behaviour rather endearing - a good foundation for the night she had planned. Her nascent arousal was somewhat nipped in the bud by a stray thought that suddenly crossed her mind - even as he was just slipping under the duvet.

'Perhaps Hayden is gay!'

What a pair that would make them - each desperate to prove to the world, to the other and to themself that they were as straight as a ruler!

Banishing this unhelpful thought, Eleanor snuggled up against Hayden, who (ever one to stay in character) had lain down with his back towards her. Knowing that gaining access to his equipment would be singularly difficult in this position, she teased and cajoled him until finally he turned to face her, bringing his knees up so as better to prevent access to his private parts.

Not one to be deterred by such feeble resistance, Eleanor reached out and all but grabbed Hayden's manhood.

'What have we here?' she said, teasingly, as the penis sloughed off its timidity like a snake shedding its skin.

Before he had a chance to cavil or do anything, Eleanor had him in her mouth. She hadn't been able to take a good look at the thing, but her first impression was that here she had a specimen which was worthy of the species.

Then, he started to talk - and how! The normally mild-mannered engineer had experienced a transformation worthy of the man who changed into a giant beetle in Kafka's

Metamorphosis

. In one sense, though, it was very much a transformation in line with his character, as the engineer in him was still very much to the fore. Thus, plain commands to 'Make me come!' and 'Suck me harder!' were admixed with instructions as to technique, such as 'Lick my column from pedestal to capital' and 'Apply the bare minimum of pressure to my balls'.

Eleanor had to say she was enjoying the whole experience immensely, much enhanced as it was by his contributions. One improvement she did make, though, was to throw off the duvet, so she could work with more light and in greater comfort. She also decided that it would do no harm if she, as it were, broke through the fourth wall and asked him if there was any additional service he required. There was always the danger, of course, that he would ask her to do something outrageous or degrading, but she was willing to take the chance.

As it happened, it proved to be a masterstroke. Hayden, who, before she managed to snatch a break, had been adopting a traditional porno pose (veritably grinding her head into his weapon), maintained his new found macho persona, telling her to 'rim his asshole'. Eleanor had to stifle a giggle, as visions of Hayden sitting naked at a laptop with a massive hard-on in one hand and a box of tissues in the other flooded her mind.

'Sure, babe,' she replied, not needing to ask him to flip over, as he took up a position on all fours.

She had to admit to having a few nerves regarding the state of the nation, but she needn't have worried, as Hayden was as clean as a whistle, and the job wasn't the drudge she thought it might be. Then she suddenly thought of fucking Linda in the ass with that dildo and all bets were off. She knew she couldn't fuck dear old Hayden in the ass (that would definitely be a bridge too far), and anyway she didn't possess a strap-on, but how horny the whole business had got her! She had to feel Hayden shoot his load inside her, and she had to feel it

now

.

She gave herself another couple of minutes on the current job before she switched roles, and got Hayden to eat her out and give her a thorough rogering. Hayden, who felt that all his Christmases had come at once, was more than amenable to the arrangements and, getting Eleanor to lie on her back, was soon working away at her pussy like a man possessed. Eleanor was pleased to note that he had finally cast off the mantle of chartered engineer. She decided to reward him with a fair bit of moaning and the occasional 'Oh fuck yes!' and 'Oh my god!'

At about the point when she was going to ask him to move on to the next stage, Hayden, seeming to intuit that, despite his stellar work, Eleanor wasn't going to come under his oral administrations, decided to bring his healthy five and a half inch cock into the equation. Eleanor was really hoping and praying that he'd honour the tried and trusted missionary position, since she wasn't really sure she was up to the contortions demanded by some of the more exotic positions. She really hoped that Hayden wasn't a student of the Kama Sutra, and that he didn't watch porn to study the positions adopted by seasoned pros.

Once again, her wish was granted, as he told Eleanor to 'hold on the tight', as 'the ride of her life' was about to begin. Eleanor reckoned she had one more task to perform before she could pretty much switch off and, well, 'enjoy the ride', and that was to give him one final verbal stimulus.

'Please, don't hurt me with your monster,' she delivered deadpan.

That was all the engineer needed to bring him to the most heightened state he had ever attained. While Eleanor may have shut up shop for the evening oral contribution wise, Hayden had much he still needed to share. First, he promised Eleanor that he would ease it in a centimetre at a time, causing something of a lapse in focus on Eleanor's part as she tried to make the conversion into inches. Next, he said he would increase the thrust of his strokes at an even rate, for maximal comfort and optimal effectiveness. Or was it the other way round? But it was when he told Eleanor that his sister would be cock-a-hoop that he was finally getting to seal the deal with her that Eleanor's self-control went west.

'Fuck me! Yeah, don't stop! Give me everything you've got!' she roared at her boyfriend.

Hayden's commitment to an even rate of thrusting went out of the window, as he began to fuck her like a man possessed. Amazingly, it took him a good five minutes before he came. By that time, the sweat was dripping from his brow and it has to be said that Eleanor was in a bit of a state too, as she was hardly playing the passive partner any longer, but was meeting thrust with thrust - and then some.

Eleanor, who had been ready with what she considered would be a pretty decent faked orgasm, needed no recourse to that, as she went off after maybe three minutes of strenuous activity. Straining every sinew, it was clear that Hayden wouldn't be far behind, and, sure enough, maybe 90 seconds after his partner, he filled Eleanor - still thinking of his sister - with his seed.

TWELVE

It wasn't long before Hayden, buoyed by the tumultuous events of that July evening, popped the question to Eleanor, who, with a position in nearby Manchester already secured, made the momentous decision to accept. Given that the affection she had for him was never likely to turn into love, it was a bold decision, but one she felt represented the lesser of two evils.

Why she felt that living with a woman -

marrying

a woman, even - constituted a form of evil needs some explanation. Eleanor certainly didn't mean it an overtly moral sense, since, like many young people today, she was possessed of a tolerance regarding belief systems, whether her own or those of other people.

Put in the crudest possible terms, nothing that had happened to her had caused her to waver in her underlying belief that she preferred the company of men to that of women. She found men more amusing, less fussy and more interesting than the average woman; also less anecdotal and more given to taking a broad view rather than adopting a reductionist approach. For her, as a scientist, it was important that one sought to generalise from a cluster of factors rather than make judgments based on singular experiences.

But then, there was the elephant in the room - the fact that she preferred sex with women - and this, of course, was something that she could neither discount nor wish away. She had almost managed to convince herself that she was turned on by Hayden when they were having sex until the mention of his sister and her reaction to the image of Caroline that was conjured up in her mind disabused her of that notion entirely.

What was she to do? She had of course considered staying single and playing the field, but, though she was not yet 23, the idea of becoming a professional dyke appalled her beyond belief. She perpetually castigated herself for casting things in such terms, but, however hard she tried to temper her ideas and be more tolerant and compassionate, she couldn't get away from the competitive aspect of lesbianism as she knew it, or, perhaps more accurately, conceived of it. You were either predator or prey, and, if you didn't play by the rules of the game, you were likely to end up either a pariah or, if you were ugly, on the scrapheap. Here, as in life more generally, everyone loved a winner. Many of the biggest snobs she knew were lesbians - something which she would have felt to be inconceivable before she began to move in those circles.

The wedding was set for the following May, which would give them plenty of time to get to know each other, since Eleanor would be moving in with Hayden in August, after her contract in Cockerham had ended. Rather than going on holiday together that summer, they decided to spend some time redecorating the house and then to throw a party celebrating their engagement. Their thinking was that they could always take an extended honeymoon the following year - an idea that made more sense given the fact that Hayden's company allowed him to carry over annual leave to the following year.

So, that year, with Eleanor's blessing and encouragement, he took just the first week of August off, while Eleanor was able to work on the house for another two weeks before her job started. In that first week, they got a lot of the 'heavy lifting' done (stripping, drilling and so on), renting equipment from a local man who Hayden had been to school with. By the time he went back to work, they were about ready to start laying the new flooring, a job on which they had engaged the help of a local builder, who Hayden knew well. They had also arranged for an electrician to rewire the upstairs of the house - a task Hayden which had been putting off for some time.

Eleanor was entrusted with repainting the walls and the ceilings (her height proved an advantage here), starting on the first floor, while the builder did his stuff downstairs. After she had been working for a couple of days, Hayden mentioned over dinner that perhaps it would be a good idea to ask Caroline to come over and lend a hand.

The last time she had spoken with Hayden's sister, Eleanor distinctly remembered her saying that she used up all her annual leave for that year, so she was surprised and checked the situation with Hayden, making her enquiry sound as casual as she could. He told her that she had accumulated nearly a week of 'personal days' as compensation for the extra hours she had put in earlier in the year helping to implement company-wide a new ISO-approved office management system.

Hayden told Eleanor that Caroline planned to come and lend her a hand from Wednesday to Friday of the following week. Eleanor's first reaction (after voicing her gratitude to his sister for her kindness) was to say that Caroline should get herself a proper rest - maybe book herself into a spa. It was the least she deserved. Hayden said that he had mentioned the same thing to his sister, but she had told him the best medicine she could get was getting to know his fiancée better.

Eleanor blushed so deeply that she thought Hayden must notice, but he was in his own happy place where the two women he most cared about were both behaving with such consideration for the other. Eleanor made a mental note to wear her baggiest, shabbiest clothes on the Wednesday, and set about thinking what tasks she could get her prospective sister-in-law to perform that would keep her as far away from her as possible.

The dreaded day came and Caroline arrived looking like a million dollars. She had obviously been to the hairdresser, where she had had her bob restyled and her eyebrows done. Eleanor noted that she was wearing a pink shade of nail varnish too. She caught herself wondering whether she had had a pedicure, and, if so, what shade of varnish she had painted her toenails - currently invisible under her trainers. Unlike Eleanor, she had dressed in rather tight-fitting clothes: a white T-shirt (through which Eleanor could make out the outline of a bra) and a pair of light-wash stretch jeans.

Eleanor could sense that Caroline was expecting her to comment on her appearance, and so she steadfastly refused to do so. Notwithstanding this, the older woman said how well Eleanor looked, suggesting that the combination of moving in with her brother and being free of daily work responsibilities appeared to suit her very well.

Eleanor got Caroline working in the spare bedroom (somehow, she didn't want her in the bedroom she shared with Hayden), while she herself knuckled down to regrouting the tiles in the bathroom. She also made a point of listening to a playlist from Spotify, so she would have less excuse for not speaking to Caroline while they were working. She noted that, for her part, Caroline didn't play any music. She also popped into the bathroom on that first morning on various pretexts (asking for this and that), taking the opportunity to get closer to Eleanor than the latter felt comfortable with. At eleven, when they stopped for a break, Eleanor was careful to shepherd her co-worker downstairs to the kitchen, where she made a pot of tea, which the two women shared with the two builders who had turned up that day.

At lunchtime, she suggested to Caroline that they went to the local coffee shop, which did wraps and paninis and salads - an arrangement that suited her guest admirably. Eleanor was pleased that on this occasion Caroline kept her hands to herself. At one point, a frisson of excitement shot through her body, and she was on the point of having a word with Caroline about it, when she realised that her leg had touched the support beneath the table. Somehow, Caroline seemed to realise what had happened, smiling at Eleanor in a way that made her feel not a little discomfited.

They talked about this and that, but thankfully the subject of their relationship (or lack of it, really, Eleanor thought) didn't come up. That afternoon, Eleanor showed that there were no hard feelings by not playing her music and by joining Caroline in the spare room after she was done in the bathroom to tackle the ceiling with the help of the stepladder.

She realised this was a mistake as soon as she started to climb the ladder, Caroline stopping what she was doing not to hold the ladder steady (as anyone else would have done) but to place her hands on Eleanor - first on her hips, then on her waist. Eleanor wanted to say something, but found she was tongue-tied, as the image of the older woman moving her hands onto her butt flashed through her mind.

After accepting the situation for a minute or two as she applied the roller to the ceiling, she suggested that Caroline could hold the tray containing the paint, while she continued to apply it to the ceiling. And so they worked together in tandem, moving around the room with a couple of breaks to allow Eleanor time to rest her aching muscles. Eleanor offered to get Caroline a shower cap, to prevent specks of white paint getting on her hair, but she was happy to follow the example of the capless painter, whose skill meant that very little paint fell from the roller.

By the time they had finished, it was time for a tea break. When they went down, they found that the builders had knocked off, and this time Caroline insisted on doing the honours while Eleanor enjoyed a well-earned rest. Eleanor was wondering whether she should invite Caroline to stay with them for dinner (even if it was only going to be something simple), but, before she could give the matter any more thought, Caroline told her that she was meeting up with an old friend that evening.

Eleanor couldn't help wondering if this friend was male or female. Something on her face must have given her away, as Caroline smiled and told her she needn't worry: the person was a former work colleague from her NHS days called Edwin. Eleanor felt an overwhelming desire to defend herself, to tell Caroline that she wouldn't care in the slightest if the friend was a woman, that she wouldn't be capable of feeling an ounce of jealousy towards her. Sensibly, though, she just laughed it off and expressed the hope that Caroline would have a great time.

THIRTEEN

The following day was a lot warmer, so Eleanor brought a fan upstairs to give them some respite from the heat, as they worked together painting the skirting boards and the doors in the spare room. During the morning, Eleanor suggested to Caroline that they might like to visit the local pub for lunch. It did decent food, and they could sit outside in the beer garden and sip on a long drink. In the end, they stayed there nearly an hour and a half - the time racing by, as they shared stories about their family life. Eleanor was particularly interested to learn more about Hayden's childhood and some of the influences on his life, be they family members or school teachers.

Friday dawned an even warmer day than the day before, and, after seeing Hayden off to work, Eleanor pondered what she should wear, given temperatures were forecast to rise to 28 degrees - a veritable heatwave in Lancaster. She was tossing up between a T-shirt and Bermuda shorts and a white short-sleeved knee-length linen dress with a V-neck bow. The latter looked quite dressy, but she had actually picked it up quite cheaply at a local market. She was in two minds about whether it would be a good idea to wear it for the first time, when there was every possibility that she'd get some paint on it. In the end she decided she would wear it, since it would be so much more comfortable than shorts. The next decision she faced was whether to wear a bra. Once more, comfort prevailed and she decided to go braless - the linen material anyway being opaque enough to ensure that no trace of nipple would be visible.

When Caroline arrived, it transpired that she had been thinking along the same lines, as she was wearing a summery sleeveless floral dress in blue, with a V-neck that was deep enough to show that she was definitely wearing no bra. In fact, Eleanor could make out one nipple pushing against the cotton fabric, which momentarily discombobulated her, as she wondered why it should be that the other nipple was so relatively modest.